As the end of my time in Costa Rica approaches (less than a week to go!), I want to have a snapshot in time of what a normal week has looked like here. I’ve already talked about the fact that this job has been very intense, without a lot of free time, but that’s not necessarily to say that I haven’t enjoyed it. I love the kids at the daycare that we work with and our two evening classes are definitely highlights. One thing that I have really liked is the variety throughout the week, between teaching the kids, teaching adults, helping with construction and working in a community park. I also wanted to write this blog as my second ever bilingual blog! I did this with my last blog from France because I figured that my French would be at its peak right as I was leaving. I’m thinking the same thing right now as my Spanish is only going to get worse (although hopefully not that much) after I leave.

Monday

Our working week actually runs from Tuesday to Saturday so our weekend is Sunday and Monday. Monday usually involves a bit of life admin for me, probably taking advantage of there being water to do a wash (our water gets cut between 12pm and 5pm every day), maybe cleaning and tidying my room. Often it involves finishing up a blog as well because, at least at the minute, I’m posting one every other Monday. The highlight is that in the evening, I have water polo training. The pool is about a twenty minute drive out of Cartago, heading into the mountains, but luckily I discovered very early on that the coach lives five minutes from me so I get a lift there. The session on Monday is usually quieter and is only an hour, usually split into 30-40 minutes swimming and the rest passing the ball around.

Tuesday

Tuesday marks the start of the working week for us. From Tuesday morning to Saturday morning we have all our meals (apart from breakfast on Thursday) cooked by Alicia. You can see the kind of things we typically eat as well as some classic Costa Rican dishes on this blog. One of my daily tasks as Education Coordinator is doing all the printing we need for our classes that day. We leave the house at 8am because even though our first class is at 9am and the project is only 11km, the traffic to get out of Cartago towards San José is notoriously bad. They’ve been building these passover bridges that should make it easier but I think they’ve been working on it for almost two years and have one full bridge and two half bridges finished. I don’t really mind that much because I use the commute there and back as time to decompress and read, a lot! In the morning it can take anywhere from 30-45 minutes (our record is 70 minutes meaning we missed our first class) and in the evening it’s more like 45-60 minutes (the return journey record is close to two hours!).

Our first class on a Tuesday is Tesoro. Most of the kids in this class are three years old so they’re the youngest age that we teach. They can be a bit of a handful, especially as the class has 25 students in it and I don’t envy they’re teachers, Daisy and Carol. That’s a lot of little ones! Last year (before Christmas) they were a bit more manageable because we had Tesoro 1 and Tesoro 2. The lesson plan with this class is usually quite formulaic. Because they’re so young, their attention span is quite short so we’ve found that having a routine helps. We always start with the same warm up song, ‘Walking Walking’, and get them all up and following the lyrics. We go through flashcards with whatever the current topic’s words are, watch some on-topic songs or videos and do a colouring sheet. God, those kids love to colour! Or at least scribble on the page… Through all the screaming and crying that often accompanies our attempts to teach them English, it’s been really satisfying to see their progress.

Our morning classes are only half an hour (honestly, more than enough with Tesoro) so we quickly move to our second class, Exploradores 3 with their teacher Katherine. The Exploradores groups are the pre-Kinder and Kindergarten age kids so 4-6 years old. Exploradores 3 is a bit of an exception though as it tends to be a bit of an overflow class so it always has a mix of ages. Last year, it was filled with the more challenging children from the other Exploradores and Tesoro but this year it’s mostly Tesoro overflow. There’s only a handful of kids who are actually the right age for the group. Considering that most of them are still very young, their attention span is a bit better. There are some real characters in this class!

The morning is short in terms of teaching, we’re finished by 10.30. After a little break, we do some lesson planning in our ‘office’ (an empty storage space at the back of the playground) until it’s time to eat lunch at midday. We take it into the canteen where the kids are finishing their lunches. The school was built and is completely funded on donations which is really impressive. The only thing that the government contributes a little bit towards is the food. If the kids are there all day, they get breakfast, lunch and snacks throughout the day. They don’t pay anything to be at the school in the first place and they don’t pay anything for the food either.

After lunch we have a couple more hours of lesson planning time and then we’re back in classes at 3pm. By this time, the older kids have arrived after primary school has finished. School in Costa Rica starts around 7am and finishes at 1 or 2pm. Our first class in the afternoon is with Investigadores 1. The Investigadores classes basically coincide with the grades so Investigadores 1 is first grade. I love this group, they’re really enthusiastic about English, maybe a little overenthusiastic at times! Noise is something we struggle with a little with this class but usually it comes from participation rather than the other way around. This class has two instructors, Maribeth and Gretchen, and Maribeth really values English so can be helpful in controlling their noise but sometimes gets a bit over-involved. They love to colour, like many of our younger classes, and really rise to the occasion when we push them. Up until this age, we focus more on vocabulary but when we’ve thrown a few bits of grammar at this group, they pick it up well. This group also loves to listen to songs and will learn all the lyrics if we listen to the same one enough times!

Investigadores 2 are probably my favourite class (but don’t tell anyone I said that!). I’ve really enjoyed seeing them mature from last year to this year. When I arrived and they were in Investigadores 1, they were much more immature. There was a group of troublemakers that influenced the energy of the class but they had such a turnaround since last year that they’re now some of the most motivated in the class. Many of this class are very special, bright students. They all take such pride in their colouring, using their own, very decked out pencil cases. They’re one of a few classes that we try to purposefully run out of time with and leave them doing the colouring sheet so they can take their time with it (it also keeps them busy for another half hour for the sake of the teacher, Leo!). They are also obsessed with four corners and would happily play it for the full 40 minute class if we let them, one student in particular who employs the best puppy dog eyes ever to ask if he can be the one to count first.

Our final class of the day on Tuesdays is Investigadores 3. By the time we get to them at 4.20pm, there’s usually no more than eight students left. As the ‘school’ as I tend to call it is actually more of a daycare, the kids can get picked up at any point throughout the day, whenever their parents are available to come and get them. There are also a series of minibuses that take kids back to their neighbourhoods. Many of these come around the time we start this last class so it’s quiet. Because it’s the end of the day and this age group have already done their proper classes at school, they can be very tired and uninterested in English class. We have a policy that the kids don’t have to participate if they don’t want to, as long as they aren’t disruptive for those that do want to participate. Despite this, there are some shining stars in this class and many of them are usually there for this class so it still feels worthwhile. Their favourite thing to do is play Hangman or Orcado in Spanish. Their teacher Fran is also one of my favourites (not that I have them!).

With that Tuesday is over. It’s our longest day on project but thankfully once we’re done, we’re done. No evening classes today. After fighting the traffic to get home, where Alicia has dinner waiting for us, the evening is for our volunteers (and us) to do with as they please.

Wednesday

We leave at 8am again on Wednesdays to start at 9am. Our first class should be half of Exploradores 1. This group is in their Kinder transition year and there’s a government Kinder teacher that comes in to do those classes. Half the class goes before lunch and the other half after lunch but there’s a lot of disruption so we often don’t end up seeing them in the morning and then having them all in the afternoon. This is possibly the most adorable group in the whole place but also the most chaotic one! Their wee faces are so cute and usually have a smile on them as they run riot. When we see them in the afternoon, I think a lot of this is to do with them being tired. This class is funny because sometimes they’ll really latch onto a word like ‘chicken’ for example but cannot for the life of them remember ‘cow’. We have a little monkey called Paula who is our classroom assistant and this class loves it when Paula comes out to play. In this class, the instructors are Lucy and Sele and it’s my favourite thing when Sele pulls out her whistle instead of shouting!

After Exploradores 1 in the morning (if we see them), we go into Tesoro and then Exploradores 3 again. We finish our morning classes at 10.30, like on Tuesdays, and then have lunch at 12. We start our afternoon classes earlier, at 2.30 and only see two groups so we’re done earlier as well. The first group is the other half of Exploradores 1 (or more likely the whole group) and then we see Exploradores 2. These kids are also in Kinder and are mostly five or six years old. There is such a range of characters in the class, from the one kid who always looks so sad but is great at English, the sassiest girl alive, an adorable love triangle as well as two of my favourite teachers, Lila and Ligia. This class also loves to play Passing Paula (like hot potato but with a monkey) although we have had to talk about treating Paula with respect and not spanking her…

Now, there’s also some other work that we do in the school. If we have a big group, we split them up so there’s a maximum of three volunteers teaching at a time. In the mornings, the rest of the group can go to help on the construction site of the new office building for the Bethany Project. This is a project, founded by the same church that founded the daycare, that supports single mothers through their higher education by providing them housing, food, academic support and social support. They are currently building a new space for the administration and we do whatever they need us to. Obviously none of us are construction workers (except Andrés in a past life) so we do things like sanding doors or walls, cleaning, moving and levelling dirt or carrying cement blocks. In the afternoons when we have a big group, those that aren’t teaching assist the teachers, again with whatever they need. That involves a lot of arts and crafts for various class projects or wall displays, a lot of cutting and sticking and at the start of the year we covered endless folders in sticky-back plastic.

It’s ridiculous how much better the traffic is when we leave the school an hour earlier on Wednesdays. Again, we arrive home to dinner on the table and after we eat we have a night class. We teach two students at UNED, a distance learning university. They started in a computing class for retirees who didn’t have the opportunity or means to study when they were younger. When they finished the computing class, they started with our English class. Originally there were more than two students but it dwindled to just Aure and Manuel before I got here. They are very motivated and committed though. It’s rare that they miss a class. Manuel picks things up really quickly, even being in his seventies, and Aure works really hard, especially on her pronunciation which is something she struggles with. This is always a favourite class amongst our volunteers!

Thursday

The schedule on Thursdays is different to the rest of the week. We have the start of the morning off and I usually use it to go to the pool for a swim. It’s nice to take that time to myself and get some exercise during the week. At 10am or 10.30, depending on how much work we have to do, we start some lesson planning for the start of the following week. Instead of taking lunch with us to school, we eat in the house before leaving which usually leads to some delicious meals (check them out here!) and instead we take dinner with us.

We head into the school for around 1pm and our first class is with the Bethany Project mums. Of the eight members of the programme, four choose to come to our classes but the number that we actually see changes every Thursday depending on their other commitments. They’re such a fun group, absolutely hilarious at times and also very hardworking. It has been great to see the massive improvement since I met them, especially in their spoken English and their confidence! We also sometimes run workshops with them, depending on the skills and interests of our Women’s Empowerment volunteers. In my time, we’ve had self defence classes and workshops on sexual and menstrual health, consent and pleasure!

In terms of classes with the kids, Thursday afternoons are when we see the eldest classes. We start with Investigadores 4 who are a class I really enjoy. While not maybe my favourite class as a whole, it has some of my favourite students. Depending on their mood, they can be really easy to teach or quite distracted. When the latter is true, their teacher Raquel is really helpful in keeping everyone on task. They love to play hangman as well and anything that involves writing on the small whiteboards that we bring to class, especially if it’s a competition. This is a class that I love to push a little bit and see how much they can learn. In the younger classes, we don’t do a lot of grammar but starting with Investigadores 3 and 4 we introduce it a bit more. It’s still not explicit, we’re not breaking down all the component parts of English grammatical structure, but once we’ve learnt the vocab, we always put it into full sentences and then little by little change the sentences around until they understand how they work.

Next up is Investigadores 5, probably my least favourite class. Individually, I like them all but when they get together, they’re hard to control at times. Even on a good day, the noise level is always high. When it’s because they’re participating, I’ll take it! There are a few kids who can really influence the class so when they pay attention, their whole crew will or vice versa. Their teacher Nacari is one of the few who I think could successfully handle them. We’ve really leant into the things they like to do to try and engage them as much as possible so there’s always lots of games, especially when we can get them competing against each other!

Our last class of the day is Investigadores 6, the eldest class in the school with their teacher Naty who is super fun. The same thing happens with these guys as with Investigadores 3 on Tuesdays, because it’s the end of the day there’s often not that many of them left. At times we’ve taught one student! (Thankfully he really likes English so he was ok with it). They can at times also be challenging but I also think they are collectively the smartest group in the school. We’ve pushed them (and Investigadores 5) a lot in explicitly teaching them grammar, at times fairly complicated concepts, and they’ve picked them up with ease. There’s a change in my aims with these two classes, I want to only teach them vocabulary as a means to teach them grammar. Vocabulary is obviously very useful but I think having a strong foundation in the basics of grammar is more useful for a future speaking English. It means you can manipulate the language how you want to, substituting in the vocabulary you know or new words that you learn as and when you need them. This class also loves games and things you can compete on, especially a matching memory game (even though they’re terrible at it!).

At the end of our classes on Thursdays, we don’t actually go home. After having eaten lunch in the house, we bring dinner with us to have in the hour’s break we have before we start our conversation club. This is another fan favourite amongst the volunteers. We say it just feels like hanging out with friends! The level of English is a bit higher than in any of our other classes and the goal is just to get them talking so we don’t have to plan anything in depth. We start with small groups mixed between our conversation club and the level below, Nivel 3. There’s no structure to this, just chatting and as much English as possible! We try to have at least one volunteer in each group. After an hour, we split and just have our conversation club group. We always do a round of introductions with a few questions for people to answer like ‘what did you have for breakfast?’ or ‘what would your superpower be?’. Every week we have one or two people do a presentation on the topic of their choice and we fill the rest of the time with fun activities that get people talking as much as possible. Through conversation club, I’ve met some of the loveliest people who have become really good friends outside of class. This class finishes at 8pm and it’s finally time to go home and be done for the day.

Friday

This day is a little different from the rest of the week. Instead of going to the daycare and teaching, we head to Parque La Libertad. The story of this place is really interesting. Around fifty years ago, this place was a concrete factory. When the company moved to Puntarenas, they donated the land to the government in exchange for a tax break. The government turned it into a public park that now houses a range of governmental and non-governmental services like PANI, the child protection services, a music school, a circus school and more. You can still see remnants of the concrete factory around though! The park covers 32 hectares and while not all of it is open to the public, the parts that are are completely free. The park isn’t in a super safe area but inside the opposite is true. There’s lots of security making their rounds so it’s the perfect place to walk your dog, go for a run, bring your kids, practice parkour or skateboarding, birdwatch or more.

We primarily work with CEGEA, the centre for environmental education and management. They run a lot of community courses and workshops, for adults or schoolchildren, and work with lots of volunteer groups aside from GVI. We work with their gardeners, specifically one called Yhan. He’s lovely and always interacts well with our volunteers, speaking Spanish with them and practising his English. I got on well with him from the beginning and he’s definitely one of my favourite people we work with. We do a range of activities when we’re there depending on what they need and the size of our group. It could be weeding, preparing soil bags for the plant nursery, planting, cleaning, organising the recycling centre (where we take our recycling from the house) or moving covers to kill weeds. We have also worked with R3-CREA which is a programme that reuses material like bottle caps, computer parts, cardboard, literally anything possible to be used in creative workshops with kids!

We leave the house as normal at 8am and start working whenever we get to the park which is ten minutes past the school. There’s also a mountain road you can take which is my favourite. We usually work until around 11.30 when we start tidying up and heat up our lunch that we bring with us. There’s this cute wee pond where we have a picnic lunch with the ducks. There’s also lots of fish and some turtles in the pond and lots of dragonflies. There are usually motmots around, these fabulous vibrant green and blue birds with tails that they groom into points, which are my favourites. Since just after I arrived, there’s also been a group of boat billed herons (pico chocuaco in Costa Rican Spanish) which are pretty rare but have made a home in a tree next to the pond.

Friday is a bit of a half day, we’re back in the house in the afternoon. We encourage the volunteers to use that time to do some cleaning but it’s not mandatory. In the evening, we do have some compulsory activities. First of all, we do Volunteer of the Week. The idea is that throughout the week (or more likely at the last minute) you submit nominations for nice things that people have done for you or others during the week or something that you think should be recognised. The side competition of Staff of the Week is always hotly contested as well! After Volunteer of the Week we have FFF, Forced Friday Fun, which is basically a bonding activity. It can be anything from playing cards, watching a movie, getting the Nintendo Switch out to play Mario Kart, going for ice cream or a drink. If we have interns, they take over the organisation and we’ve had zumba classes or presentation nights which are so funny and my personal favourite.

Saturday

Not the weekend yet but almost. Usually we have classes on Saturday mornings. They’re part of the same programme of courses as our conversation club on Thursdays. There are two classes, one from 8am to 10am and then straight into the second one until 12pm. The first class is for 7-9 year olds and the second one for 10-12 year olds. There’s not usually a lot of overlap between the kids we see during the week and the kids that come on Saturdays but sometimes there is. The classes are two hours which is a long time for students so young so we try to make them as fun as possible and give them a break halfway through when they can run around.

After classes finish, the volunteers are free! A lot of them take advantage of being in Costa Rica and use the weekends to explore the rest of the country a bit. Popular destinations are Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean side, La Fortuna or Monteverde in the mountains or Manuel Antonio and Uvita on the Pacific side. If everyone leaves, Andrés and I are free to do what we want! If even one volunteer stays, one of us has to stay around the house.

Saturdays are also pick up days. New volunteers get picked up from San José every other week by a member of staff. We welcome them with lunch and then an afternoon of training! Andrés handles the introductory presentation and risk assessment and then we settle the new people into the house.

Sunday

If it’s not a pick up weekend, Sundays are usually pretty chill for me. The only fixed plan is a two hour water polo session in the middle of the day which is something I always look forward to. If it is a pick up weekend however, I’m chained to the table giving a full day of teacher training. Because those days are so full, I always start them with a swim so that I can do something for myself. Andrés also has a pick up weekend tradition of making his specialty, super fluffy pancakes on Sundays so I come home to that. I split the training into two parts, the more theoretical bit in the morning , a lunch break and then a more practical session in the afternoon when we plan a lesson for the coming week.

Una Semana en Costa Rica

19th Sep 202419th Sep 2024 sarakmorrisonLeave a comment

READ THE ENGLISH VERSION HERE!

Mientras se acerca el fin de mi tiempo en Costa Rica (falta menos de una semana!), quiero guardar una imagen de cómo ha sido una semana normal aquí. Ya hablé del hecho de que este trabajo ha sido muy intenso, sin mucho tiempo libre, pero no es decir necesariamente que no lo he disfrutado. Me encanta los niños en la guardería con la que trabajamos y nuestras dos clases nocturnas son definitivamente mis favoritas. Algo que me ha gustado mucho es la variedad durante la semana, entre enseñar a los niños, enseñar a los adultos, ayudar en construcción, trabajar en un parque comunitario. También quería escribir este blog como mi segundo blog bilingüe! Lo hice con mi último blog de Francia porque me pareció que mi nivel de francés estaría en su punto máximo justo cuando me iba. Estoy pensando lo mismo ahorita, ya que mi español sólo va a empeorar (aunque espero que no tanto) después de irme.

Lunes

En realidad nuestra semana laboral es de martes hasta sábado entonces para nosotros el fin de semana es domingo y lunes. Para mí, lunes suele ser un poco de administración, probablemente aprovechar el hecho de que hay agua para lavar mi ropa (el agua de la casa se corta entre las 12 y las 5 de la tarde todos los días), quizás limpiar y organizar mi cuarto. Muchas veces también tengo que terminar un blog porque, por lo menos al momento, publico uno cada dos lunes. La mejor parte es que por la tarde, tengo entrenamiento de waterpolo. La piscina está a unos veinte minutos de Cartago en carro por las montañas, pero por suerte descubrí muy temprano que el entrenador vive a cinco minutos de mí así que me lleva en carro. La sesión del lunes suele ser más tranquila y sólo dura una hora, normalmente separado en 30-40 minutos de natación y el resto pasándose el balón.

Martes

El martes es el principio de la semana laboral para nosotros. Desde el martes por la mañana hasta el sábado por la mañana, Alicia nos prepara todas las comidas (aparte del desayuno del jueves). Puede ver el tipo de comida que normalmente comemos además de algunos platos típicos de Costa Rica en este blog. Una de mis tareas diarias como Coordinadora de Educación es imprimir todo lo que necesitamos para las clases del día. Salimos de la casa a las 8 porque aunque nuestra primera clase es a las 9 y el proyecto está a sólo 11km de la casa, la presa para salir de Cartago hacia San José es notoriamente mala. Han estado construyendo unos puentes pasantes que deberían ayudar pero han estado trabajando en ello por casi dos años y todavía sólo tienen un puente completo y dos medios puentes terminados. No me molesta mucho porque aprovecho el viaje para relajarme y para leer mucho! En la mañana, puede tardar entre 30 y 40 minutos (nuestro récord está en 70 minutos que significa que perdimos nuestra primera clase) y en la noche entre 45 y 60 minutos (el récord del viaje de vuelta es cerca de dos horas!).

La primera clase del martes es Tesoro. La mayoría de los niños en esta clase tienen tres años, así que son los más jóvenes que enseñamos. Pueden ser un poco difíciles, sobre todo porque la clase tiene 25 alumnos y no envidio a sus profesores, Daisy y Carol. Son muchos chiquillos! El año pasado (antes de Navidad) eran un poco más manejables porque teníamos Tesoro 1 y Tesoro 2. El plan de clases suele ser bastante predecibles. Como son tan pequeños, sus periodos de concentración son bastante cortos, así que hemos descubierto que tener una rutina ayuda. Siempre empezamos con la misma canción de calentamiento, ‘Walking Walking’, y hacemos que todos se levanten y sigan la letra. Repasamos las fichas con las palabras del tema actual, miramos canciones y videos relevantes y pintamos una hoja. A estos niños les encanta pintar! O al menos garabatear en la página… A pesar de todo los gritos y llantos que suelen acompañar nuestros esfuerzos a enseñarles inglés, ha sido muy satisfactorio ver sus desarrollos.

Nuestras clases de la mañana sólo duran una media hora (honestamente, es más que suficiente con Tesoro) así que rápidamente pasamos la segunda clase. Exploradores 3 con su profesora Katherine. Los grupos de Exploradores son los de pre-Kinder y Kindergarten, es decir de 4 a 6 años. Exploradores 3 es una excepción porque funciona más como un clase de desbordamiento así que tiene una mezcla de edades. El año pasado, estaba lleno con los niños más difíciles de los otros Exploradores y de Tesoro pero este año la mayoría venían de Tesoro. Sólo hay unos niños que realmente tienen la edad correcta para estar en el grupo. Teniendo en cuenta que la mayoría de ellos son bastantes jóvenes, su capacidad de atención es mejor. Hay algunos personajes fuertes en esta clase!

La mañana es corto en términos de enseñanza, ya terminamos a las 10.30. Después de una pausa corta, hacemos un poco de planeamiento de clases en nuestra ‘oficina’ (un depósito vacío al fondo del play) hasta mediodía cuando almorzamos. Lo llevamos a la cafetería donde los niños están terminando a almorzar. La guardería se contruye únicamente con donaciones que es muy impresionante. Lo único a lo que contribuye el gobierno es a la alimentación. Si los niños están allí todo el día, tienen desayuno, almuerzo y varias meriendas durante el día. No pagan nada para estar en la guardería para empezar y no pagan nada para la comida tampoco.

Después del almuerzo, tenemos un par de horas más para planificar las clases y regresamos a las clases a las 3. A esta hora, los niños mayores han llegado después de terminar las clases en la escuela. En Costa Rica, la escuela empieza más o menos a las 7 y termina a la 1 o las 2. Nuestra primera clase en la tarde en Investigadores 1. Los grupos de Investigadores básicamente coinciden con los grados así que Investigadores 1 es primer grado. Me encanta este grupo, son muy entusiastas con el inglés, quizás un poco demasiados a veces! El ruido es algo con lo que luchamos con esta clase pero normalmente viene de la participación y no al revés. Esta clase tiene dos instructoras, Maribeth y Gretchen, y Maribeth valora mucho el inglés así que puede ayudarnos a controlar el ruido pero a veces se mete un poco demasiado. A ellos les encanta pintar, como muchas de nuestras clases más jóvenes, y realmente se ponen a la altura cuando les presionamos. Hasta esta edad, nos enfocamos más en el vocabulario pero cuando les damos unas nociones de gramática al grupo, responden muy bien. A este grupo también les encanta escuchar canciones y se aprenden todas las letras si escuchamos la misma canción bastantes veces!

Investigadores 2 son probablemente mi clase favorita (pero no le digas a nadie que he dicho esto!). He disfrutado mucho viéndolos madurar desde el año pasado hasta este año. Cuando llegué y ellos estaban en Investigadores, eran mucho más inmaduros. Había un grupo de alborotadores que influían la energía de toda la clase pero han dado un giro tan grande desde el año pasado que ahora son unos de los más motivados en el grupo. Muchos de los alumnos de esta clase son muy especiales y brillantes. Se enorgullecen tanto de pintar con sus propias cartucheras. Son una de las clases con las que intentamos que se acabe el tiempo a propósito y podemos dejarles hacer la hoja de pintar para que puedan tomarse su tiempo con ello (también para mantenerles ocupados por otra media hora por el bien de su profe, Leo!). También están obsesionados con el juego de cuatro esquinas y lo jugarían alegremente durante los 40 minutos de la clase si les dejarían, un alumno en particular que emplea los mejores ojitos tiernos para preguntar si el puede empezar.

Nuestra clase final del día del martes es Investigadores 3. Cuando llegamos a las 4.20, normalmente no quedan más que ocho estudiantes. Como la ‘escuela’, como suelo llamarla, es en realidad una guardería, se pueden recoger a los niños en cualquier momento en el día, cuando sea que los padres pueden. También hay varias busetas que llevan a los niños a sus barrios. Muchos llegan sobre la hora que empezamos esta última clase así que es más tranquilo. Porque es el fin del día y este grupo de edad ya han terminado sus clases en la escuela, pueden estar muy cansados y desinteresados para clase de inglés. Tenemos la norma que los niños no tienen que participar si no quieren, en tanto que no sean disruptivos a los demás. A pesar de esto, hay unas estrellas brillantes en esta clase y muchos de ellos suelen estar para la clase así que todavía vale la pena. Su cosa favorita para hacer es jugar ahorcado. Su profe Fran también es uno de mis favoritos (no es que los tenga!).

Así termina el martes. Es nuestro día más largo en el proyecto pero por suerte cuando terminamos, estamos terminados. No hay clases nocturnas. Después de luchar con la presa para llegar a la casa, donde Alicia tiene la cena esperándonos, la noche es para nuestros voluntarios (y nosotros) para hacer lo que quieren.

Miércoles

Los miércoles, volvemos a salir a las 8 para empezar a las 9. Nuestra primera clase debe ser la mitad de Exploradores 1. Este grupo está en su año de transición a Kínder y hay una profe de Kínder del gobierno que viene a hacer estas clases. La mitad de la clase va antes del almuerzo y la otra mitad después del almuerzo pero hay mucha disrupción así que muchas veces no terminan a verlos en la mañana y luego todos están en la tarde. Este es posiblemente el grupo más tierno de todo el lugar pero también lo más caótico! Sus caritas son tan lindas y normalmente tiene una sonrisa mientras se enloquecen. Cuando les vemos en la tarde, creo que en gran parte se debe a que están cansados. Esta clase es raro porque suele se quedan super bien con una palabra como ‘chicken por ejemplo pero pero no pueden recordar ‘cow’ para nada. Tenemos una monita que se llama Paula que es nuestro ayudante en clase y a ellos les encanta cuando Paula sale a jugar. En esta clase, los instructores son Lucy y Sele y lo que más me gusta es cuando Sele saca su pito en vez de gritar!

Después de Exploradores 1 en la mañana (si los vemos), vamos a Tesoro y luego a Exploradores 3 otra vez. Terminamos las clases de la mañana a las 10.30, como los martes, y almorzamos a las 12. Empezamos las clases de la tarde más temprano, a las 2.30, y sólo tenemos dos grupos así que terminamos más temprano también. El primer grupo es la otra mitad de Exploradores 1 (o más probable el grupo entero) y luego vemos a Exploradores 2. Esos niños también están en Kínder y la mayoría tiene cinco o seis años. Hay un gran variedad de personajes en esta clase, desde el niño que siempre parece muy triste pero es muy fuerte en inglés, la niña más atrevida, un adorable triángulo amoroso además de dos de mis profesoras favoritas, Lila y Ligia. A esta clase también les encanta jugar Passing Paula (como papa caliente pero con una mona) aunque hemos tenido que hablar de tratar a Paula con respeto y no pegarla…

También hacemos otras tareas en la escuela. Si tenemos un grupo grande, los dividimos para que haya un máximo de tres voluntarios enseñando a la vez. En las mañanas, el resto del grupo puede ir a ayudar en el sitio de construcción de un nuevo edificio para el Proyecto Bethany. Este es un proyecto, fundado por la misma iglesia que la guardería, que apoya a madres solteras durante sus estudios universitarios proporcionandolas alojamiento, comida, apoyo académico y social. Actualmente, están construyendo un nuevo espacio para la administración y hacemos cualquier cosa que necesitan. Claro que ninguno de nosotros es trabajador de construcción (aparte de Andrés en una vida pasada) entonces hacemos cosas como lijar puertas o paredes, limpiar, moverse y nivelar tierra o cargar bloques de cementos. En la tarde cuando tenemos un grupo grande, los que no están enseñando pueden ayudar a las profes, otra vez con cualquier cosa que necesiten. Eso significa muchas manualidades para varios proyectos o exposiciones murales, cortando y pegando mucho y al principio del año cubrimos un montón de folders en plástico.

Es ridículo cómo mejora la presa cuando salimos de la escuela más temprano los miércoles. Llegamos otra vez con la cena en la mesa y después de comer, tenemos una clase nocturna. Enseñamos dos estudiantes de la UNED, la Universidad Estatal a la Distancia. Empezaron en una clase de informática para jubilados que no tuvieron la oportunidad o los medios de estudiar cuando eran más jóvenes. Cuando terminaron la clase de informática, empezaron nuestra clase de inglés. Al principio había más estudiantes pero ya se redujo a Aure y Manuel antes que yo llegué. Pero están muy motivados y dedicados. Es raro que faltan una clase. Manuel aprende muy rápido, aún con con setenta-y-algo años, y Aure es muy trabajadora, sobre todo con su pronunciación que es algo que le cuesta mucho. Eso siempre es una clase favorita con los voluntarios!

Jueves

El horario de los jueves es un poco diferente al del resto de la semana. Tenemos el principio de la mañana libre y normalmente voy a la piscina para nadar. Es agradable tener tiempo para mí y hacer ejercicio durante la semana. A las 10 o las 10.30, depende de la cantidad de trabajo que tenemos, empezamos a planear clases para el principio de la siguiente semana. En vez de llevar el almuerzo con nosotros a la escuela, comemos en la casa antes de salir que suele dar lugar a comidas deliciosas (puede verlos aquí!) y en cambio nos llevamos la cena.

Vamos a la escuela para la 1 y nuestra primera clase es con los mámas del Proyecto Bethany. De los ocho que están en el programa, cuatro eligen venir a nuestras clases pero el número que vemos cada jueves depende de sus otros compromisos. Son un grupo muy divertido, a veces graciosísimo y muy trabajador. Ha sido increíble ver el enorme mejoramiento desde que las conocí, sobre todo en su inglés hablado y en su confianza en sí mismos. A veces, hacemos talleres con ellas también, dependiendo en las habilidades e intereses de los voluntarios de Empoderamiento de la Mujer, En mi época, hemos dado clases de defense personal y talleres sobre salud sexual y menstrual, consentimiento y placer.

Cuando hablamos de las clases con los niños, jueves por la tarde es cuando vemos a las clases mayores. Empezamos con Investigadores 4 que son una clases que me gusta mucho. Aunque no es mi clase favorita en general, tiene unos de mis estudiantes favoritos. Dependiendo en su humor, pueden ser muy fáciles de enseñar o muy distraídos. Cuando el segundo es verdad, su profe Raquel nos ayuda mucho a mantener todos concentrados en la tarea. Les encanta jugar ahorcado también y cualquier cosa que involucra escribir en las pizarras pequeñas que traemos a la clase, sobre todo si es una competencia. Esta es una clase que me gusta suponer un desafío y ver cuánto pueden aprender. En las clases más jóvenes, no hacemos mucha gramática pero empezando con Investigadores 3 y 4 lo introducimos un poco más. Todavía no es explícito, no estamos descomponiendo todos los componentes de la estructura gramatical inglés, pero una vez que hemos aprendido el vocabulario, siempre lo ponemos en frases enteros y luego poco a poco cambiamos las frases hasta que entienden cómo funcionan.

Los siguientes son Investigadores 5, probablemente mi clase menos favorita. Individualmente, me gustan todos pero cuando están todos juntos, a veces son difíciles de controlar. Incluso en un buen día, el nivel de ruido es siempre alto. Cuando es porque están participando, lo acepto! Hay algunos de los niños que pueden realmente influir en la clase así que cuando prestan atención, todo su grupo lo hace o viceversa. Su profe Nacari es uno de los pocos que podría manejarlos bien. Nos hemos centrado mucho en las cosas que les gustan para intentar que participen lo máximo posible entonces siempre hay muchos juegos, sobre todo cuando pueden competir entre ellos!

Nuestra última clase es Investigadores 6, la clase más mayore de la guardería con su profe Naty que es muy divertida. Con estos chicos, la misma cosa que pasa con Investigadores 3 los martes, al ser el fin del día no suelen quedar muchos. A veces hemos enseñado a un solo estudiante! (Afortunadamente a él le gusta el inglés, así que no le importaba!). A veces pueden ser un reto pero también creo que colectivamente son el grupo más inteligente de toda la escuela. Los hemos desafiado mucho (con Investigadores 5 también) enseñándoles explícitamente gramática, a veces conceptos bien complicados, y lo han aprendido fácilmente. Hay un cambio con mis metas con estos grupos, solo quiero enseñarles vocabulario como medio de enseñarles gramática. Claro que el vocabulario es muy útil pero pienso que tener una base sólida en los básicos de la gramática es más útil para un futuro hablando inglés. Significa que puede manipular el idioma como quiere, reemplazando el vocabulario que ya sabes con nuevas palabras que aprende como y cuando los necesiten. Esta clase también les encanta juegos y cosas en que pueden competir, sobre todo el juego memoria (aunque son terribles!).

Al final de nuestras clases de los jueves, en realidad no nos vamos a la casa. Después de haber almorzado en la casa, llevamos la cena con nosotros para comer en la hora que tenemos antes de empezar nuestra club de conversación. Esto también es uno de los favoritos de los voluntarios. Decimos que es como pasar tiempo con amigos! El nivel del inglés es más alto que en nuestros otros clases y el objetivo es simplemente hacerles hablar así que no tenemos que planear mucho. Empezamos con grupos pequeños mezclado entre nuestro club de conversación y el nivel inferior, Nivel 3. No hay ninguna estructura, solo charlando y lo más inglés posible! Intentamos tener por lo menos un voluntario en cada grupo. Después de una hora, nos dividimos y tenemos solo a los estudiantes del club de conversación. Siempre hacemos una ronda de presentaciones con preguntas como ‘qué comió para el desayuno?’ o ‘qué sería su superpoder?’. Cada semana tenemos uno o dos personas que hacen una presentación sobre el tema que han elegido y el resto del tiempo dedicamos a actividades divertidos que hacen que la gente hablen lo más posible. He conocido a gente encantadora en el club de conversación que se han convertido en muy buenos amigos fuera de la clase. Este clase termina a las 8 de la noche y finalmente es la hora de regresar a la casa y terminar por hoy.

Viernes

Este día es un poco diferente al resto de la semana. En lugar de ir a la guardería y dar clases, vamos a Parque La Libertad. La historia del lugar es muy interesante. Hace unos cincuenta años, era un fabricante de concreto. Cuando la empresa se mudó a Puntarenas, donó la tierra al gobierno en cambio para una excención fiscal. El gobierno lo transformó en un parque público que ahora tiene varios servicios gubernamentales y no gubernamentales como PANI, los servicios de protección de los niños, una escuela de música, una escuela de circo y mucho más. Todavía puede ver los remanentes del fabricante! El parque ocupa 32 hectáreas and aún si no todo es abierto al público, los partes que sí están totalmente gratuitos. El parque se encuentra en un barrio que no es muy seguro pero adentro es al contrario. Hay muchas guardias de seguridad haciendo sus rondas así que es el lugar perfecto para sacar el perro, salir a correr, llevar a los niños, practicar el parkour o skateboard, observar aves o más.

Trabajamos sobre todo con CEGEA, el Centro de Gestión y Educación Ambiental. Hacen muchos cursos y talleres comunitarios, para adultos o estudiantes, y trabajan con muchos grupos de voluntarios aparte de GVI. Trabajamos con los jardineros, uno en particular que se llama Yhan. Es super amable y siempre interactúa bien con nuestros voluntarios. Desde el principio, me llevé bien con él y es uno de mis favoritos entre todo la gente con quien trabajamos. Hacemos varios actividades que depende en lo que ellos necesitan y en cuantos personas somos. Puede ser desherbar, preparar bolsas de tierra para el vivero, plantar, limpiar, organizar el centro de reciclaje (donde llevamos el reciclaje de la casa) o mover cubiertos para matar a las malas hierbas. También hemos trabajado con R3-CREA que es un programa que reutiliza materiales como tapas de botellas, partes de computadoras, cartón, literalmente cualquier cosa posible para utilizar en talleres creativos para niños.

Salimos de la casa como normal a las 8 y empezamos a trabajar cuando llegamos al parque que está a diez minutos más lejos que la escuela. También hay un camino de montañas que es mi favorito. Normalmente trabajamos hasta 11.30 cuando empezamos a recoger todo y a calentar el almuerzo que llevamos. Hay un bonito estanque donde hacemos un picnic con los patos. También hay muchos peces y unas tortugas en el estanque y muchas libélulas. Suele haber muchos momotos, aves fabulosas de un verde y azúl vibrantes con colas que acicalan en punta, que son mis favoritos. Desde que llegué, también hay grupo de pico chocuacos que son bastantes escasos pero que se han instalado en un árbol a lado del estanque.

El viernes es medio día, estamos en la casa en la tarde. Animamos a los voluntarios a aprovecharse del tiempo para limpiar un poco pero no es obligatorio. Pero en la noche, tenemos actividades obligatorias. Antes de todo, hacemos Voluntario de la Semana. La idea es que durante la semana (pero más probable al último momento), se presenten nominaciones de cosas agradables que la gente haya hecho por ti o por otros durante la semana o algo que creas que debería ser reconocido. La competición paralela de Personal de la Semana siempre está muy reñida también! Después de Voluntario de la Semana tenemos FFF, (el Viernes de Diversión Forzada, Forced Friday Fun en inglés) que es básicamente un actividad para fomentar el espíritu del grupo. Puede ser cualquier cosa, jugar a las cartas, mirar una película, sacar el Nintendo Switch para jugar Mariokart, salir para comer helado o tomar algo. Si tenemos practicantes, ellos se encargan de la organización de todo y hemos tenido clases de zumba o noches de presentaciones que son muy graciosos y mis favoritas.

Sábado

Ya no es el fin de semana pero casi. Normalmente tenemos clases los sábados por la mañana. Son parte de la misma programa que nuestro club de conversación. Hay dos clases, una de 8 a 10 de la mañana y luego directamente la segunda hasta mediodía. La primera clase es para niños de 7 a 9 años y la segunda para 10 a 12 años. No hay muchos niños que enseñemos durante la semana que viene a las clases de los sábados pero a veces hay algunos. Las clases duran dos horas que es mucho tiempo para estudiantes tan jóvenes así que intentamos que sean tan divertidos como sea posible y les damos una pausa a la mitad para que puedan jugar un rato.

Después que las clases terminan, los voluntarios son libres! Muchos aprovechan de estar en Costa Rica y usan los fines de semana para explorar más del país. Los destinos populares son Puerto Viejo en el Caribe, La Fortuna o Monteverde en las montañas o Manuel Antonio y Uvita en el Pacífico. Si todos salen, Andrés y yo somos libres para hacer lo que queremos! Si se queda un solo voluntario, uno de nosotros tenemos que estar en la casa.

Los sábados también son días de recogida. Recogemos a los voluntarios nuevos de San José cada dos semanas. Les damos la bienvenida con almuerzo y luego una tarde de formación. Andrés se encarga de la presentación introductoria y de la evaluación de riesgos y luego instalamos a los nuevos en la casa.

Domingo

Si no es un fin de semana de recogida, los domingos suelen ser bastante tranquilo para mí. El único plan fijo que tengo es una sesión de waterpolo de dos horas en el medio del día que siempre es algo que disfruto. Sin embargo, si es un fin de semana de recogida, estoy encadenado a la mesa para dar un día completo de formación de enseñanza. Porque estos días están tan llenos, siempre los empiezo nadando para poder hacer algo para mí. Andrés tienen una tradición los domingos también que es cocinar su especialidad, panqueques super esponjosos, así que vuelvo a la casa a eso. Divido la formación en dos partes, la parte más teórica en la mañana, un descanso para almorzar y luego una sesión más práctica por la tarde en la que planeamos un clase para la semana siguiente.

Costa Rica Food Diary

2nd Sep 2024 sarakmorrisonLeave a comment

I always say that I write this blog primarily for myself and that is very true. This is the kind of post that I like to look back on, one that chronicles a part of everyday life that it’s easy to forget about once you become accustomed to it. Looking at what I eat every day or a snapshot of a week is something I’ve done both when I lived in Honduras and in China (and it still makes me hungry to re-read them!). Food is such an important part of culture and so intrinsic to understanding and assimilating to a new place. It’s a great way to get to know people, to share time with them and build connections. It tells stories and hold history. It’s so much more than just what is put on a plate.

Costa Rican specialties

Over the course of the year I’ve eaten (and also learnt how to cook) many typical Costa Rican dishes too. So let’s dive in! I really like Costa Rican food, it reminds me a lot of Honduran cuisine. They use a lot of the same base ingredients at least but some of the dishes are very different. Costa Ricans are definitely big fans of meat but it’s not impossible to be vegetarian or even vegan here. Once you take away the meat, many dishes are vegan anyway. There’s lots of fruits and vegetables in the diet and as long as you like rice and beans, you’ll be ok! One of the most traditional lunches here is called a casado which has all the classics – rice, beans, some kind of meat, salad and sometimes cheese, plantains or tortillas. The name means ‘married man’ and comes from when wives would send their husbands off to work with this wrapped in a banana leaf.

(L) Pintortilla – This is an example of a very full traditional breakfast, in this case from a restaurant in Cartago called La Tortillería. There’s a big corn tortilla topped with gallo pinto, scrambled eggs, cheese, plantain and a small dish of natilla. This is kind of like sour cream, similar to Honduran mantequilla. Gallo pinto is Costa Rica’s national dish, I would go as far as to say it’s part of the national identity. The base for the dish is rice and beans but gallo pinto is so much more than the sum of its parts.

(R) Tortilla de queso con natilla – I have a favourite cafe near the house called Mist City. I often go for a swim in the morning and sometimes go there for breakfast afterwards. This is my go to. Deliciously cheesy and I love the natilla on the side.

(L) Rice ‘n’ beans and pollo caribeño – If I had to pick a favourite Costa Rican dish, this would be it. It’s a speciality of Limón, the region on the Caribbean coast. Alicia, our GVI cook, is originally from this part of Costa Rica so she makes this for lunch sometimes. I’ve also eaten it in Limón and personally I think Alicia’s is the best! Rice ‘n’ beans, which is the name even in Spanish, does what it says on the tin but is cooked with coconut milk as well. It’s typically served with Caribbean chicken in a delicious, coconut sauce that I could drink straight out of the pan!

(R) Vigorón – This dish has chicharrones, boiled yucca, shredded cabbage and chimichurri (a tomato salsa). I LOVE chicharrones. They can be either fried pork belly or fried pork rinds, one chewy and the other crunchy and crispy. The chicharrones pictured were actually made by my friend and colleague Andrés’ dad!

(L) Chifrijo – The name of this dish comes from the combination of two of its main ingredients – chicharrones and frijoles (beans). As well as the pork and beans, there is rice, avocado, pico de gallo and tortilla chips.

(R) Olla de carne – Literally ‘pot of beef’, this is a beef stew that is very popular. It’s prepared for a lot of special occasions and if you ask many Costa Ricans what their favourite meal is, this is their answer! As well as beef, you can pretty much throw in any vegetables you have, including but not limited to potatoes, corn, green plantain, chayote (a type of gourd that is one of the biggest crops in this area and is like a watery potato), squash and yucca. Andrés’ mum made this for me when I was last visiting his parents after she heard that I hadn’t tried it before!

(L) Picadillo de plátano – Picadillo is a dish of chopped vegetables, think of something like a stew, but there’s a lot of scope within that. This one is a specialty of one of my friends, Naty, and is made with green plantain, onion, garlic, a little butter, evaporated milk, regular milk, spices and some coriander for serving. You wrap it up with a tortilla and enjoy!

(R) Sopa de mariscos – Another soup eaten for special occasions but very specifically at Easter. It’s traditional in Costa Rica to eat seafood for Easter and this soup has a little bit of everything. I’m not the biggest soup fan in general or the biggest seafood fan but I did enjoy the arroz con pescado (rice with fish) that we had at the same time.

Those are some of Costa Rica’s specialties and as much as I love them, that’s not what I eat everyday. Both when I was in Honduras and China, I had a host family cooking for me and while it’s a little different this time, here in Costa Rica I’ve been very lucky that we have Alicia who cooks for us during the week. She still makes a lot of typical Costa Rican food for us with a few other things thrown in there. We very much couldn’t survive without Alicia! Having a great breakfast to start the day, a hefty packed lunch and coming home from project to dinner made for us is invaluable. The following sections will give you an idea of what a more typical day looks like.

Breakfasts

There are about four breakfasts on rotation during the week. From least favourite to most, first we have oatmeal. I don’t normally eat this at home but it’s better when you add peanut butter or Nutella, banana and granola for crunch. Next in line is pancakes, also topped with Nutella and banana. I’m more of a savoury breakfast person so I like it when we have toast and scrambled eggs but my favourite has to be gallo pinto! It’s rare but occasionally we’ve had huevos rancheros, omelette-like eggs in a spicy tomato sauce and it’s always a good day if it starts with that. We also always have coffee (of course) and fresh fruit. Costa Rica has ruined pineapple for me because it’s so sweet and delicious here, I don’t think I’ll be able to enjoy it the same way at home anymore.

Lunches

When it comes to lunch, there are two kinds. First of all, there’s the lunches that we take to school. There is a canteen in the school that provides breakfast, lunch and snacks to the kids for free and for a small fee for teachers but we have the resources to bring our own and don’t want to take any of theirs. Like breakfast, there’s a bit of a rotation but sometimes there are surprise entries. My least favourite of the standards is picadillo which can often have meat but ours are always vegetarian. I don’t mind the potato version but I don’t really like the courgette or chayote versions because they’re too watery. Another standard is fried rice, seen above with elotitos, roasted corn kernels, or pasta which is my favourite. Occasionally we have potato salad, Russian salad (like potato salad but with beetroot) or Alicia’s take on quiche. There’s also always salad, whatever lunch is.

The other category of lunches are Thursdays. Our schedule is a bit different on Thursdays, we spend the morning lesson planning in the house before going into school after lunch and staying late for our conversation club. Being at home makes it easier for Alicia to prepare something a bit more elaborate. You can see two fish dishes above, the fish and chips in particular appealed to my British sentiments. Empanadas are also a great option but my favourites are chalupas or patacones. The two middle photos show the chalupas and all of its component parts. It’s a fried tortilla topped with frijoles licuados (beans), a chicken, pork or vegetable topping, cheese, pico de gallo (a tomato salsa), avocado and salad. Patacones involve similar toppings but the base is smashed and fried slices of plantain. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of the whole dish but you can see patacones as a side with the whole fish.

Dinners

Dinners are more varied in the house. We have a lot of soups, especially if there are vegetarians or vegans. A typical Costa Rican soup is sopa negra (black soup) which is made with beans and usually eaten with rice and chopped up boiled eggs. I’m not much of a soup person but I love this one. I also really like the white bean soup and we also have chickpea or just general vegetable soup. We can also have a plate that is composed of rice, beans, salad, some vegetables and meat in an always delicious sauce. Again, there’s always salad!

Bonuses!

I’ve been lucky to have learnt how to cook a number of Costa Rican dishes while I’ve been here, some of which I might try to recreate at home and others that might be a lot harder!

Tamales – These are the traditional Christmas dish in Costa Rica and it’s a long process to prepare them. It is made with a corn based dough that is filled with meat, vegetables and rice and wrapped in a banana leaf for cooking. The banana leaves that are used as wrapping have to be prepared before you can use them so they get wiped clean, cut down to size, and the strong centre vein of the banana leaf is separated to tie the tamal. The massa is mixed with spices, salsa lizano (a staple in Costa Rican cooking that is like a thicker Worcestershire sauce) and some of the cooking juices from whatever meat is being used. The fillings can vary but it’s traditionally made with pork as well as rice, potato, onion, carrot and pepper. When it comes to wrapping the tamales, you have to make sure it’s tied nice and tight so that no water can get in during the cooking because that ruins the flavour and texture.

I first made them in December when a volunteer that we had at the time expressed an interest in learning how to make them and we were invited around to Naty’s dad’s house to do just that! I’ve also made them twice while working with GVI’s group trips as one of their cultural activities.

Arepas colombianas – Again, I have some very lovely and generous friends. Karo is originally from Colombia and we met her through our conversation club. She recently taught us how to make Colombian arepas! The dough is made with cornmeal and then filled with cheese. It’s often eaten for breakfast with scrambled eggs. While Karo oversaw the cooking of the arepas, we had her 11 year old son Felipe (who speaks the most incredible English) teaching us how to fold the cheese into the dough.

Empanadas – Naty has also taught one group how to make empanadas and Andrés taught another group. You can fill empanadas with pretty much anything but the standard options are beans, cheese, chicken, chicharrón, potato or any combination. The trick is just not to over-fill them, however tempting it might be!

Why I Quit My Dream Job

21st Aug 202430th Aug 2024 sarakmorrisonLeave a comment

Sorry for the clickbait title but ‘why I didn’t renew my contract at my not-so-dream job that I actually didn’t like as much as I thought I would’ just didn’t quite have the same ring to it. That gives you the Spark Notes of what is to come but there’s a lot more to get into. Once again, I’m using my writing and this blog as a way to process one chapter of my life coming to an end and another beginning. The decision to leave this job and by extension Costa Rica wasn’t an easy one but ultimately it was clear what I needed to do. I currently have just over a month left in Costa Rica and then I’ll be moving back to Scotland to start a new job! But don’t let me get ahead of myself.

To go back to the beginning, moving back to Scotland is something that has been on my mind since the end of 2022. At the time, I was living in France but trying to figure out my next move when I finished my job teaching English at a university there. I didn’t quite know what I was going to do when I got there but I wasn’t thinking about it too much as I had a summer of travelling to Honduras, Panama and Colombia first. It was while I was travelling that I got an email about this job and the rest is history. I stand by all of the reasons why I took this job and I don’t regret that decision (apart from the fact that I had to sell my ticket to see the women’s water polo final at the Olympics…). However, it hasn’t been an easy year by any means.

Before I get too far into this, I want to preface what is to come by saying that I don’t want it to sound like I don’t appreciate being here. I absolutely do, I have a lot of love for this country and its people and there have been a lot of highlights. I’m just working through the reasons why I made the decision, the difficult decision, to leave. This job is one that I’ve dreamt about since I was 17. I went into adult life saying that I wanted my future job and career to involve three things – travel, speaking other languages and helping people. In my mind, this job with GVI fits these three criteria perfectly. In reality, it does but there’s also more aspects to take into consideration. From the outside, it might seem like working in Costa Rica is the dream, I mean it’s literally paradise, right? This is true, Costa Rica has some of the most incredible nature and wildlife, beautiful beaches, great weather and the famous ‘pura vida’ attitude. I’m living in the city of Cartago, the third largest city in Costa Rica, just outside of San José. It is surrounded by mountains and has a very temperate climate with cool evenings, both of which I love, but at the end of the day, it’s still a big city. I’m also pretty much as far from the coast as it is possible to be in such a small country. However, not all of that has applied to my year here. Like the rest of us, I’m guilty of sharing more of a highlight reel and presenting the sunshine and smiles to those outside of my immediate circle, especially when it comes to social media.

The side that you don’t see is that for the past year, I have been working almost 24/7. The nature of this job, where I look after volunteers who come to Costa Rica to teach English, is all consuming. From the moment they arrive, I spend the weekend training them to get them ready for project work during the week. Every morning, I’m checking how everyone is feeling, how they slept, if they’re feeling ill. Then we’re all at the school we work in, which for me involves supervising English classes, translating Spanish, guiding lesson planning, keeping track of where we are in the curriculum, liaising with teachers and other school staff, staying on top of all the volunteer’s physical, mental and emotional wellbeing, organising logistics for the rest of the week and probably more. When we get back to the GVI house in the evening, sometimes there’s more classes or more planning or group activities. At all times, there’s a diverse group of people who are far from home, maybe for the first time, who don’t know each other but are now living and working together.

The intense nature of the job means that it’s also been hard to have a life outside of it. Even when we’re not actively on project, at the school, my free time is not really my own. It’s like being on-call, at any point someone could need something and I have to deliver. It’s a lot to manage and the fact that it’s a live-in role means it’s very difficult to get time to myself. While volunteers stay in dorm style rooms, I do at least have my own room but even that is tainted by the fact that I sleep on a (shitty) mattress on the floor. Any time away from the house and Cartago, in the evenings and even at weekends, has to be coordinated with Andrés, my colleague and technically my manager here, because if there’s volunteers around, one of us has to be nearby. I have made a real effort to carve out time to myself when I can. This is where my swimming and water polo comes in, going to the pool is undeniably me-time. I’ve been welcomed into the club so warmly, by the coaches and players, and included in trainings and tournaments (even if I haven’t been able to participate in most of them because of work). On the other hand, I don’t have many friends outside of the people I’ve met through our projects. That’s not to say I don’t have good friends, I have met some incredible people who I’ll be friends with for the rest of my life. However, I don’t have friends that are completely separate from work and that can act as an escape. I’m a very social person and it’s always been important to me to have several circles of friends and I just don’t have that here. There either hasn’t been the time or when there has been, I haven’t had the energy to go out and find people to make these connections with.

Alongside feeling like my life is completely dedicated to my job, I don’t feel like this effort has really been acknowledged or fairly compensated. I am not and have never been someone who is majorly motivated by money but I am someone who is good at recognising their worth. (On a funny side note, when I started working at the school here I had to do a psychology test and it came out with my biggest weakness being that I don’t like not being in control and my biggest strength being very high self esteem.) This job came with accommodation and the majority of food included but only a very small monthly salary. Obviously, this kind of work is not usually well paid, if it’s paid at all, which I don’t necessarily agree with but is just the reality of the situation. As a short term job, a way to get experience or try something new, it might be justifiable. It might be sustainable if you’re rich or have a large amount of savings. For me, it hasn’t really been either of these things. Even for a year, which in the grand scheme of things is relatively short term, I have found it hard to justify the hours I’ve been working against what I’ve gotten out of it, whether monetary, experientially or personally. I had some savings when I got here but these have rapidly dwindled with having to cover extra costs, emergencies like fixing a smashed phone screen and paying for flights to and from Costa Rica. Any extra travel I have wanted to do has also had to come from my savings. Travel is very important to me, I love being able to explore new places and it’s always been a big reason why I have enjoyed living abroad. I would have loved to be using my weekends, or at least some of them, to see more of Costa Rica and enjoy what it has to offer. In reality I’ve been on three weekend trips in the almost year that I’ve been here.

A few things happened that had me reflecting a lot and having to confront how I was feeling and it led to a lot of big realisations. In March, my grandad fell and broke his hip and passed away about two weeks later. That period was very emotionally fraught and probably the most difficult period that I have experienced while living away from home. I felt like I had been waiting for a phone call like that since I moved to Honduras when I was 18, or at least fearing the moment when that kind of phone call would come. After he passed away, the grief I was feeling made me long to be closer to my family. It wasn’t just about being close during that very difficult time but made me reconsider the fact that I have spent so long living far away. I’ve always been close to my family and I value them a lot but I’ve also always had an urge to go out into the world and experience things in other places that I can’t experience at home. That urge has, up until recently, been the stronger one but that has changed. It’s not just a desire to be close to my family that made me want to move back to Scotland but a longing for the place itself. There is a word in Gaelic that perfectly encapsulates how I’ve been feeling. ‘Cianalas’ refers to a deep seated sense of longing for and belonging to the place where your roots lie, particularly the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Grandad was from the isle of Lewis and grew up speaking Gaelic. I have been learning the language for the last three years, throughout which time I have been living abroad, and it has made me feel so much more connected to my country, my culture and that side of my family. I need to embrace that and be at home for a while.

When it came down to it, I realised that I wasn’t that happy. There were a few catalysts that made me realise that I needed to make a change. Grandad passing away was obviously one of them. With that, I ended up going home twice in the space of a month. I went back for the funeral at the start of May but I already had annual leave booked in for the end of May so I could visit home and also go to one of my best friends’ weddings. The first time I went home, I was very much still dealing with the first wave of grief. I didn’t do much while I was there other than spending time with my family. I wasn’t thinking too much about going back to work when I got back to Costa Rica but at this point, my plan was very much still to renew my contract when the time came in September. I know this because I took things like clothes and a few books back with me when I left. In the two weeks I was back in Costa Rica before going back to Scotland again, a lot changed. By the time I went home for the second time, I was thinking a lot about changing my plans, renewing my contract for a shorter period of time or not at all.

With everything that was pulling me away from Costa Rica, there were still a few things holding me here. I absolutely love working with the kids in the school. As much as I’ve been wanting to move away from teaching, working with kids is still something I enjoy. With that, I also didn’t want to leave Andrés in the lurch. It took several months for my position to be filled in the first place and I don’t want that to happen again. This job is a lot, even when you have a strong team which I think we have been. At the end of the day though, as much as I care about Andrés, this isn’t my responsibility. The most I could do after I decided to leave was to give GVI as much notice as possible and therefore as much time to find a replacement for me as possible. A small point in my mind but one that was there nonetheless was that it would look better in terms of my CV if I stayed longer than a year. While there may be some merit to it, I quickly dismissed it as not being a good enough reason to stay. The biggest sticking point that was making me want to stay (and I’m only half joking when I say this) is that I have a cat here! Taica turned up on our doorstep with her sister Onca about three weeks after I arrived. While Onca decided to unadopt us, Taica is firmly here to stay. I adore her, I’m obsessed with her and even now that I’ve made the decision to leave Costa Rica, she’s still on my mind a lot.

One big benefit of my time here is that it has been a great way to step away from English teaching, or at least take a side step. I’ve been saying for a year or so that I would be open to staying in education but in a less formal environment. I’ve always liked working with young people in the variety of ways that I have over the years. Moving forward, I still want to be involved in their development and education but more through experiences than the classroom. My time living and working abroad may be over (for now) but I’m ready to help facilitate that for others. This all brings me on to what’s next for me. When I was 18, I moved to Honduras for a year to work as a volunteer English teacher with an organisation called Project Trust. I have worked for them twice during summers while I was at university, once as kitchen staff in their residential centre and once doing school talks in London to recruit new volunteers. As I was looking for jobs to apply for, I saw that they had an opening in their recruitment department doing much the same thing as I had done as an intern in London but based in Scotland. To cut a long story short, I got the job! I’m excited to be part of an organisation that I have a lot of love for and to encourage young people to have hopefully as amazing an experience as I did.

I used to think that I wanted my job to be what fulfilled me in life and what satisfied me. I’ve tried that now and I can say that it’s not something that works for me, at least not without better boundaries between my personal life and professional life than I’ve had this year. Moving forward, I want a job that I enjoy and do get some satisfaction out of but that more importantly gives me the time and resources to live a life outside of work that fulfils me. I want to be able to spend time with my friends and family, explore and travel, pursue my hobbies. Essentially I want to work to live, not the other way around. I’m hopeful that this is what is in store for me with this new job.

The role involves working from home with travel around Scotland. This means that I’m going to be based back in Dunblane and Stirling. Other than during the initial Covid lockdown, I haven’t lived there full time since I was 18. This is also the first time I’m going to be somewhere indefinitely. I don’t have an end date in mind for this next chapter in my life. Everything I’ve done since first leaving home has had a time limit on it, first in Honduras, then during university and finally in France. I’ve always had a bit of a complicated relationship with Dunblane, having never really felt like I fit there. This is the first time that I’m actually excited to live there and put down some roots. It’s going to be all about rediscovering the area that I grew up in, with a new appreciation for being close to family and friends. I got tired of missing out on things like birthdays, hen dos, my sister’s performances and one of the things I’m most looking forward to is being there for all of those things.

I’ve been rambling for long enough so I’m going to start bringing things to a close. I couldn’t have gotten through this year without the support of my nearest and dearest, they know who they are but there’s a few people in particular that I want to shout out. Some of my lowest moments this year have come in the evenings at which point most people at home are asleep. Thankfully, just a few months after I moved here, my sister moved to the British Virgin Islands which is only two hours ahead instead of six or seven. Thank you Amy for picking up all my calls! Also to my friend Anna who has been a great sounding block all year and sends me morning texts when she knows I wake up, even though it’s early afternoon where she is. They really make my day. Finally, I couldn’t imagine doing this job with anyone other than Andrés. There’s a running joke that we share a brain cell because we are so much on the same page about everything. While he’s technically my boss, he’s been so much more of a friend, confidante and literal shoulder to cry on, on more than one occasion.

Visiting my sister in the BVI, December 2023

These final few weeks are always so difficult because I feel like you have one foot in two worlds. Half your mind is excited and looking forward to what is to come, making plans. I’m already thinking about rejoining the water polo team that started it all, co-working dates with my best friend, being able to hug my cats and dog (and parents) whenever I want. I’m ready to be back in Scotland which is where my heart belongs and has been longing to be for more than a year and a half. I have an exciting new job that also feels like coming home. But we’re not there yet. The other half of my mind is trying to soak up the here and now of it all. There’s so many lasts to be had that I’m sad about but also so desperately want to enjoy and make the most of. Last classes in the school, saying goodbye to my friends, trying to fit in a few final trips. I’ve felt this before and it doesn’t get any easier. There’s no better word for it than bittersweet and I feel lucky that that’s the case. I feel lucky that I’m looking forward to what’s to come and am ready to move on but also that I’m sad to leave behind where I am now. That’s the (bitter)sweet spot and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Highlights of Nine Months in Costa Rica

24th Jun 2024 sarakmorrisonLeave a comment

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.

Work Trips to Paradise

11th Jun 202417th Jun 2024 sarakmorrisonLeave a comment

I haven’t written much, if at all, about what my work in Costa Rica actually involves. Some of that is coming, I want to share a little of what my day to day looks like but this isn’t that… yet. Instead, this post is about a great work opportunity I had recently, or more specifically two great opportunities, where I got to do something a little different to my normal. GVI has three bases in Costa Rica, two core bases and one base for groups. Normally I work in the core community base in Cartago, that’s to say a permanent base that works on the regular, mostly education based programmes that run for individuals. There is also the core conservation base in Kéköldi. All participants have to be over 18 (unless coming as part of a family and then they can be 14) and most people come by themselves, although it is possible to come with a friend or partner.

Another area of GVI is the group trip programme. This most often serves schools or universities but there are also general under 18 programmes which bring together young people who don’t necessarily know each other. This is the type of programme that I did myself in Costa Rica when I was 17. I had the most amazing time and from that point I wanted to work for GVI one day. I was actually initially interested in working on the groups’ side of things before I got my current position, at least in part because of my own experience in 2015. Currently, the groups’ base is in Gandoca in the Limón province on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. At the start of the season, they were a little short staffed and my base was quiet so I was able to go and fill in!

I helped on two groups, one in March and one in April, both a week long each. The first group was from NYU and it was part of their alternate spring break programme. They were honestly such an easy group, we had no problems and four of them were fluent Spanish speakers which was very helpful! The second group were students from a bilingual French high school in Los Angeles, so all around 16 years old. Working with under 18s was a very different dynamic to the university students that we had previous time, you always had to be on your toes!

The first step is actually getting the groups to the base. After the groups arrived at the airport in San José we stayed the night there and set off the next day. It’s about a six hour drive to Gandoca in a minibus, driving through Braulio Carrillo national park which, fun fact, has Costa Rica’s only road tunnel going through a mountain. The scenery on the part of the road is stunning and it actually gets a bit chilly, a welcome change before the humid Caribbean weather. We stopped in Cahuita for lunch, a town known for its national park that we would visit at the end of each trip. This area of Costa Rica that includes Cahuita, Puerto Viejo and Gandoca, where the base is, is almost entirely surrounded by Panama. As you drive down one of the last roads of the journey, you can see Panamanian mountains. This area is also home to a lot of banana plantations that line the sides of the road. The bus sometimes has to stop so that the bananas can cross the road! (That’s not the first part of a bad joke, there’s a transportation system of rails that allows bunches of bananas to be quickly, easily and efficiently moved around the planation.)

Gandoca itself is a small town of only around 350 people. The GVI groups programme works in conjunction with a local business called Gandoca Experiential Learning. They provide sustainable experiences focusing on environmental, cultural and adventure activities to promote rural tourism and economic development in the town. As part of that we stay at their accommodation, Posada Casa Tucán Tranquilo, known as Casa Tucán for short. Most of the people that work in Casa Tucán (and most people in Gandoca actually) are family or as good as. Most of the families in Gandoca have been there for generations. There’s always a big welcome from the staff, the place is beautiful and there’s a spread of fresh fruit to eat and coconuts to drink. The rest of this first day was pretty admin heavy, there was a welcome presentation and a risk assessment to get through but at some point there was also a folkloric dance presentation from some of the local children which is a lovely way to kick things off.

There’s a couple of things that usually happen on the first full day in Gandoca which help to introduce the groups to the community that they’re in and give them some context for the rest of the week. The first thing is a presentation on the history and culture of the town, presented by the founders’ mother and translated by a member of staff or a participant, depending on their level of Spanish. She talked about the history of the town, that her family came here in the 1920s and they were very self-sufficient, they would grow pretty much everything they needed. The families that live there now might not be fully self-sufficient anymore but they still grow a lot of their own food.

In the afternoon, we took the groups out on a tour of the community and down to the lagoon. Like I said, Gandoca is a very small town with one main gravel road that runs through from one end to the other where it stops at the beach. There is a primary school and a high school, although previously the children had to travel over 13 km to the high school in Sixaola on the border with Panama, sometimes by bus but often by foot. There’s a pulpería, basically a corner shop, but no bigger supermarket. There’s a church and there are a few hotels or cabins for tourists to stay in. After walking through town, we split the group in two for half to take a boat through the lagoon and the other to carry on walking and would swap for the way back.

There are a lot of areas of ecological importance in Gandoca, including the lagoon which is a Ramsar site. This means that it’s a wetland of international importance, recognising its biological richness. The lagoon supports the only mangrove forest on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and is a very protected area so you can only use electric motors and fishing is limited to fish of a certain size. It’s also a great place to see birds, monkeys, caimans and, if you’re very lucky, a manatee. When there’s been a lot of rain, the lagoon actually links up with the sea. When that happens, it’s not the best time to swim but when we were there it was safe enough to get in the water near the beach. Swimming there was weird because some of the water was super hot but would swirl with super cold water! There were more coconuts to drink and fresh fruit which was delicious. When my group walked back along the beach on the way home, we heard a little from staff members Andrey and Justin about the turtle protection and conservation efforts along Gandoca beach. The whole beach is patrolled every night by volunteers in two shifts across three sections. The threats the turtles face range from poachers to the erosion of the beach. We would learn more about these efforts later in the week and get to contribute to their work.

As well as participating in a number of cultural activities, many of these group trips are built around volunteering and service work. The high school group from LA in particular had lots of volunteering worked into their schedule because they were all on a programme that required a certain number of hours. With them, one of the things we did was go to the high school where we planted some cassava and plantain that the students will look after and then will be used in the school meals. We also painted a table and benches in bright yellow, pink and blue to spruce them up a bit! With the NYU group, their volunteering was in Casa Tucán’s new plant nursery. Similar to at the school, the idea is to use what they grow in the kitchen, to feed the GVI groups and any other guests they have. Any surplus will be shared with the community or given to the school kitchens. The plant nursery was still very new, nothing had been planted yet, so the volunteers were building up the plant beds and digging holes around the edge so that a roof could be built to protect it from the intense sun and the equally intense rain. It was hot, sweaty work but with lots of water breaks and rotating through the different tasks, we helped make some good progress.

With the LA group, they had the chance to do a bit more volunteer work. They had two sessions working on cacao farms in the town and over the course of the week they got to see most of the chocolate making process, from harvesting to drying to roasting to grinding the beans. The first step was to cut the ripe cacao pods from the trees. There are two colours of pods – unripe green pods which turn yellow or orange when they are ripe and purple pods which turn red. If there are any black pods, they’ve gone bad so need to be cut from the trees but not collected. The ripe pods were collected and brought back to the group that was opening them, avoiding the many orb weaver spiders on the way! The pods are opened with a machete so that you can take the seeds out. You can eat the seeds at this point but they taste nothing like chocolate. To me, the white flesh tastes like soursop (guanabana in Spanish) or maybe pear and if you bite into the bean, it’s purple and very bitter. Another day on another cacao farm, rather than collecting the pods, we were doing some maintenance on the trees. We had some people raking around the base of the tree and others cutting off the sucker plants that take nutrients away from the main tree. We were supposed to be there for about two hours but we did roughly forty minutes in the end because the mosquitos were the worst that I’ve ever seen! Once you have the beans, they go into the drier for the fermentation process. Once you have the dried beans, you roast them over a fire and peel them. If you taste the cacao now it’s still bitter, but crunchy with a slightly smoky, almost coffee flavour. Lastly (for us anyway) you grind the beans into a paste. This is where we stopped the process. That evening we mixed the paste with water (or you can use milk) and a little sugar to make hot chocolate!

A very important part of the group’s experience is the turtle conservation part. Gandoca is a nesting site for three of the world’s seven sea turtle species, mostly leatherback but also hawksbill and green turtles. With all groups, they start with a presentation about turtles from Andrey who is extremely knowledgeable. He has spent decades doing this work, both in Gandoca and elsewhere. Andrey does a lot of work with COASTS, the Costa Rican Alliance for Sea Turtle Conservation Science, a grassroots non-profit organisation that he and his wife founded. Sea turtles return to the same region, if not the same beach, that they were born on when it comes time to nest. Turtles only nest at night, crawling out of the ocean to dig an egg pit. From every 1000 eggs that are laid, only one will make it to adulthood which I found to be a shocking statistic!

The second part is a turtle walk along Gandoca beach in the evening, leaving around 8pm and finishing anytime between 10pm and midnight, depending on the group and the weather. Every night COASTS have volunteers patrolling the beach to protect the turtles from poachers and keep track of them. You have to wear all black and no phones are allowed on the beach to keep the environment as natural and undisturbed as possible. When we did need to use a torch, it had to be a red light. If turtles feel disturbed once they come out of the water, they can do what is known as a false crawl which is when they return to the ocean without laying any eggs. We were out for a couple of hours before we had to come in early because of the rain. I went again the next night with a smaller group but we didn’t see turtles either night. Both the trips I was on were at the start of the turtle nesting season so chances were slim but it was still nice to be out on the beach in the evening.

Another activity during the week that counts both as volunteering work and also contributes to the sea turtle conservation efforts is the beach clean. We actually focused more on pulling up roots and vines in the areas that the turtles like to nest rather than plastic, although obviously we also picked up any rubbish that we saw. At some points on the beach, there were some huge logs in the way but with a team of 8 or 10 people, it was light work! Even under the very hot sun, doing pretty physical work, the groups both got really into it. I think a beach clean gives you that immediate feeling of satisfaction and it’s easy to see the difference you’ve made. After one of the beach cleans and after some of the volunteering work with one group, we took them to the local football field to have some free time to let off some steam. Some of the students got into football games with whichever locals were around, others were passing around a volleyball and others making the most of the pitch being one of the only spots in town where you can get phone signal!

While the volunteering and conservation work are important parts of the group trips, it’s also a chance for the students to get to know more about Costa Rican culture. Part of this is a Spanish class or more specifically ‘Talk like a Tico’! There’s not enough time to start from scratch with any students that don’t speak Spanish but then there are also some students that are already fluent in Spanish. With such a mix of abilities, the Spanish class focuses more on Costa Rican slang. For example, ‘el tico no trabaja, el tico bretea’, ‘tico’ being a Costa Rican and ‘bretear’ being the word they use for work instead of ‘trabajar’. If you want to learn any of it, have a look at a video on YouTube called Gringo Pinto!

There is also a cooking class because food is such an important part of culture. All the GVI groups learn how to make tamales, a very traditional dish that is made across Latin America. The preparation is a little different from country to country and even regionally so these are Caribbean Costa Rican tamales, before anyone disagrees! It is made with a corn based dough that is filled with meat, vegetables and rice and wrapped in a banana leaf for cooking. The banana leaves that are used as wrapping have to be prepared before you can use them so they get wiped clean, cut down to size, and the strong centre vein of the banana leaf is separated to tie the tamal. The corn had been cooking over a wood fire the day before and the first thing to do was grind it up. The massa is mixed with spices, salsa lizano (a staple in Costa Rican cooking that is like a thicker Worcestershire sauce) and some of the cooking juices from whatever meat is being used. Every tamal gets some rice, potato, onion, carrot and pepper and then we had a range of other fillings. Pork is traditional but we also had chicken or you can leave them without for the vegans and vegetarians. We also separated some of the massa so it wouldn’t have the meat stock in it. When it comes to wrapping the tamales, you have to make sure it’s tied nice and tight so that no water can get in during the cooking because that ruins the flavour and texture. We made them in the morning so there was time for them to cook during the afternoon and then we ate them for dinner!

Probably my favourite part of the whole week was the 10 km hike from one side of the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge to the other. We started on Gandoca beach at around 7.30am so that we could get a good distance out of the way before it got too hot. We walked along the beach for about an hour which was the most physically demanding part because the loose sand is harder to walk on. Beyond that it was mostly in the jungle with a few short stretches on the beach further along. It was so fun, such a nice level of difficulty, a good pace and so beautiful! Some of the most challenging moments were steep slopes that were a bit muddy because I only had trainers without much grip to them but I managed not to fall! Not everyone can say the same… What made these sections even more difficult is that a lot of the trees along the path are pochotes that have thick spikes all over the trunks so if you do slip or fall, you absolutely can’t reach out to catch yourself on the tree or risk shredding your hand to pieces. At around the halfway point we stopped at a coconut farm for a break, fresh coconuts included! What could be better? It was a breathtaking place to rest, ready for the second half of the hike.

With the NYU group, we completed the hike in four and a half hours. They were the first trip of the year but compared to the groups from last year they were second fastest, coming in after the group of high level student athletes so they did well! The LA group finished in five and a half hours, we just had a few more breaks along the way with them. The hike ended inside the main part of the Manzanillo national park where we managed to see a sloth! After a long hike, we had a well deserved lunch at a local restaurant of a very typical Caribbean dish, pollo caribeño and rice ‘n’ beans. To get back to Gandoca, rather than walk the opposite way back, we got a couple of boats which was great because both times I did it I saw turtles!

On the last morning of each trip, after saying goodbye to most of the team in Gandoca and leaving the lovely Casa Tucán behind, we head up to Cahuita, another national park on the coast. It’s not a huge park and entrance is by donation for anyone visiting. There’s only really one trail that heads along to an absolutely stunning beach, the perfect place to have a swim before you head back down the same path to the entrance again. Even though it’s small, there’s so much to see in Cahuita! Every time I’ve been there, I’ve seen at least three sloths and most of them were quite low in the trees. There’s also lots of monkeys, sometimes howler monkeys or capuchin monkeys. It’s also possible to see morpho butterflies floating lazily through the air, easy to spot because of their bright blue colour. With a good guide (which we had, Braulio from Casa Tucán), you can also see the harder to spot animals like tiny poison dart frogs or bright yellow eyelash viper snakes.

After lunch in Cahuita, it’s back into the bus for the final five hours to San José. Both groups had a night there and left at the end of the following day. With the NYU group, I had actually already arranged to have a weekend in Puerto Viejo, the most touristy town in the same area as Gandoca, Manzanillo and Cahuita. Because the group programme was short staffed and I was helping them out at the last minute, I was able to stay in Puerto Viejo so missed the final day with the NYU group. I was there for the second group with the LA school though. It’s much more relaxed than the rest of the week because after such a jam packed schedule, everyone was pretty exhausted! There was some admin to be done, a goodbye presentation, feedback and reflection and then we went to the national museum and San Jose’s central market to wrap things up.

I really enjoyed the two group trips that I worked on. It was really interesting to see a different side of what GVI does and I loved working with the partners in Gandoca as well. For the first group, with NYU, it was just me and Indie who manages the groups programme but for the LA group we also had Isa who worked on some of the groups last year. It was a great team to be a part of and I’m very pleased that I got to have this experience! For now, it’s back to Cartago and normal life but it wasn’t so bad working in paradise for a while.

A Tale of Two Beach Trips

29th May 202429th May 2024 sarakmorrisonLeave a comment

Before the blog posts move from Panama on to Colombia, I’m going to take another short break to write about a few different things. First up, I am almost nine months into living in Costa Rica (and there might be something coming soon to celebrate that!) which I can barely believe. Obviously one of the things I love about living abroad is the opportunity to get to know new places and make the most of where I am by travelling around. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, it hasn’t been as easy to travel while I’ve been here, although I have managed to fit in a few weekends away and also been able to travel with work a little bit. Today, I’m telling you a tale of two beach trips, one to Dominical on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and one to Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast.

Before Christmas, I didn’t really travel much because I was saving my pennies to be able to visit my sister in her new home in the British Virgin Islands. However, I knew that I wanted to go away for the weekend around my birthday as a treat to myself. Initially, the main requirement was just that it was by the beach because I needed some time by the ocean. I decided on Dominical, a tiny town on the Pacific coast, in between Manuel Antonio and Uvita. It is basically two roads, one down from the main highway that has all of the shops and restaurants on it and then another that runs along the beach. Dominical is a popular surfing spot so the town has some of that laid back, no shoes kind of energy to it. However, this area is home to a lot of Americans who have bought property so it has developed to accommodate that as well, with more upmarket options. I really liked Dominical, it was perfect for the weekend break I wanted but I will say that it is overwhelmingly filled with tourists, mostly Americans. It feels like that takes away some of the authenticity and maybe some of the charm of it. That’s not to say it’s not worth visiting! I just think it’s important to bear in mind.

The main reason I chose Dominical, other than wanting to be by the beach, was because it’s the best jumping off point for visiting the Nauyaca waterfall which had been recommended to me by a friend. From Dominical, I got the 6.20am bus towards San Isidro and asked the driver to let me know when we got to the waterfall. It was about 500 colones (70p) and only about 20 minutes. It sounds really early but it meant that I got there right when the ticket office opened at 7am and otherwise it can be tricky to get there and back by public transport. If you arrive by public transport, there is a bus back to Dominical that passes at 12,20, stopping at the bus stop just opposite the ticket office. It also meant that after I had hiked through, I was one of the first people there and by the time I was leaving it was only just starting to get busy. There are a few options when it comes to tickets. I went for the cheapest, $10 just for access which means hiking 5 km either way. You can also pay $32 to take a pick up truck both ways or pay an extra 6000 colones on top of the access fee to get the truck just on the way back. There are also horseback riding tours for $80-90.

The first stretch is 2 km of paved road down to the car park that is very steep! It took me twenty minutes going down but I reckon it would have been double that walking up. From there, the road is more of a track, clear enough but a bit bumpy and I imagine it would be muddy if it had rained a lot. Most of it was flat or with a slight incline with some steeper stretches for about 3.5 km. The second section took me an hour on the way there and only 35 minutes on the way back because it was mostly downhill. Only a couple of people passed me on foot and 300m from the end, the first pick-up truck that you can take went past and I got a big cheer from everyone on board which was lovely. Even though I started early, it was already very hot and humid! I recommend bringing lots of water, electrolytes and some snacks because there’s nothing after the ticket office, though there are taps with drinking water at the entrance to the falls themselves. It was pretty much my perfect hike, not too long, not too hard and beautiful. I really enjoyed the walk, it’s a lovely area with beautiful surroundings and has the best reward when you get to the end of it.

Nauyaca is technically made up of two falls, the upper and the lower ones. You can swim at both but I think it’s nicer in the lower falls. I went along to the upper falls first and they really are quite impressive. They have such height to them. I’ve seen a lot of waterfalls over the years, they’re a dime a dozen across Central America, and sometimes they can feel the same or a bit disappointing but I thought this one was really special. There was something about the way the sun, which hadn’t risen over the top of the falls yet, reflected off the water falling over the top that made it seem like a scene out of an anime film. I lounged around reading my book for a while, enjoying the peace before many other people arrived before going for a swim. A top tip for getting photos of yourself when you’re on your own: ask the group of Gen Z girls that have just been having a photoshoot!

I made sure to leave in plenty of time for the bus I wanted to get back down to Dominical. I passed a lot of people on my way out and there were already a lot more at the falls when I left so I think going early, particularly on a Saturday, was a smart thing to do. It only took me 40 minutes to walk back to the car park where I took a break. As I started walking back up to the road (which, as I had imagined, was much worse uphill), I managed to hitch a ride with a couple I had spoken to earlier. It was definitely a more bearable journey that way!

The bus back down to Dominical was supposed to pass by at 12.20 but it was a little late. Once I made it back to my hostel, I made some lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon reading my book in a hammock. That’s pretty much my happy place so I was very content. This feels like a good moment to give a massive recommendation to the hostel I stayed in, Cool Vibes. From what I can tell it’s one of only two hostels in Dominical. I loved it, everyone was really friendly, the staff were helpful, there’s a big kitchen, lots of chill common spaces and a small pool for relaxing. I was in a dorm with a mosquito net and a personal fan which was helpful for the heat. It’s actually right next door to the other hostel in town which I read some bad reviews about and looked a bit dingy, although it also looked like it was under renovation.

Cool Vibes is also less than 100m from the beach! Caribbean beaches in Costa Rica are generally deemed to be a bit nicer but the Pacific coast has one big advantage – the sunsets are beautiful! I took advantage of this and went down to the beach both evenings I was there (I arrived just after dark on my first night so missed the sunset). Then, after getting up at 5.30am, I was in need of an early night!

On my second full day, I wanted to walk to the neighbouring beach, Dominicalito. It’s supposed to be nicer than Playa Dominical with smaller waves better for beginner surfers (not that I was surfing) and for swimming. You can walk all the way along the main beach, cut up onto the road briefly and then back down onto Dominicalito. It was beautiful! It took just under an hour to walk there, I’m not quite sure exactly how long because I stopped a couple of times to talk to a friend or to read and enjoy the view. Once I had arrived on Domincalito and spent a bit of time there, I walked out of the main entrance to the beach and stopped for a smoothie at Kunjani Cafe, between the beach and my next destination. I had an orange and passion fruit smoothie while trying to finish my book which was my mission for the weekend. Along the road from Kunjani, across the river and up the hill a little there is a track off the road that leads to another waterfall! Very different from Nauyaca, Poza Azul is a lovely wee spot, entrance is free which is a bit of a rarity in Costa Rica and it’s usually pretty quiet. The water was quite low because it hasn’t been raining a lot but the pool is still quite deep at the centre. Deep enough anyway to use the rope swing at the edge of the pool but not enough to jump of the top off the falls, although apparently you can at times!

From here I headed home, spent more time in the hammock during the afternoon, finished my book and headed down to the beach for sunset. I had decided to take myself out for a nice dinner on my last night (otherwise I was making food in the hostel to save money) because this was, after all, my birthday trip! I went to a place called Phat Noodle where I had a delicious pad thai with pulled pork which was an unexpectedly good combination. The staff were also super friendly and very surprised when I actually spoke Spanish!

The next day I headed back to Cartago, down a different route than I had taken to arrive that basically went through two national parks, Tapanti and Los Quetzales. It reminded me a lot of driving through the mountains on the way to Candelaria in Honduras. This was my first weekend away to explore Costa Rica since I arrived in October and it reminded me how much I love to travel. Almost as soon as I got home, I booked another trip for not long after!

This second trip was also to the beach but on the opposite side of the country. Around Easter we had a few extra days off school and the volunteers were all planning on travelling that weekend as well. That gave me a long weekend to play with, making a trip to the Caribbean side a lot more worthwhile as it’s a little further than the Pacific. I ended up being in the area for the week prior, helping on a GVI school group programme (more on that soon) which worked out to give me an extra day so I was actually there for four full days. The main town that people visit on the Caribbean coast is Puerto Viejo, a very laid back place. It’s popular with surfers, hippies and Costa Ricans alike. The area is also known for having more of a mix of cultures, blending Costa Rican culture with afro-caribbean influences and aspects of the indigenous Bribri culture.

I actually opted to stay in Playa Cocles, 1.5 km down the road from the centre of Puerto Viejo. I was staying at the fabulous Playa 506 Beachfront Hostel and it really is right on the beach. I stayed in a 6 bed female dorm and paid a bit extra to have air con which I really appreciated. There’s a restaurant and bar on site but they’re quite expensive in my opinion. Saying that, I did treat myself to a cocktail the size of my head on the first night! There’s also a big kitchen where you can cook and a supermarket a five minute walk away. From the restaurant you can walk 20 metres to get onto the beach. It was the perfect place to relax and in the perfect location with the beach just out the back of the hostel. I think this beach is much nicer than any in town and the water is cleaner for swimming in as well. It’s also a good place to base yourself with Puerto Viejo and Cahuita on one side and Punta Uva and Manzanillo on the other.

After what had been a busy week with work, I went to bed early and slept for 12 hours! The plan for the first day was that there was no plan. I spent a bit of time on the beach but there was a shaded hammock area between the hostel and the beach where I spent most of the weekend. I did rouse myself a little more the next day and headed into Puerto Viejo. I was meeting a friend who was passing through on her way to the GVI conservation base in nearby Kéköldi. We went for breakfast at a place called Bread and Chocolate which was great. There are a lot of good food choices in Puerto Viejo, nice coffee shops, brunch spots and bakeries. There are also lots of bars and a good nightlife but I was having a more chill time so didn’t experience these for myself. Another spot worth a visit is Gelateria Deelite where I had incredible pistachio and tiramisu ice cream.

Through the work I had been doing in the area I had met a local tour guide and took the chance to join him on a tour one day. I joined a tour with a British and a French woman to a cacao farm and medicinal plant garden in the indigenous town called Bribri. It was so interesting, there were so many plants growing around the place that I never would have noticed by myself. So many of them can and still are used to treat many different conditions and illnesses. There was also a frog nursery where we saw poison dart frogs. We got to take some cacao beans through the whole process of roasting, crushing, grinding and then making the paste into a drink. It’s very bitter, a bit too much for me, but I loved it when we put some of the chocolate paste into a roasted banana.

It was really interesting to learn more about the Bribri culture as well. The language of Bribri is still spoken but much less than it previously was. We learnt some phrases in Bribri during the tour like ‘miska‘ which means let’s go, ‘weske‘ means come in and ‘mia mia‘ means thank you. The language has been taught in schools since 1985 but by then, some of the damage was already done and the language was on the decline. Nowadays there is more of an effort being made, you can study Bribri at the University of Costa Rica, but in general there is a worry that outside influences and especially new technology and the digital space are threatening the preservation of the Bribri language and culture. The name Bribri comes from the word for ‘strong’ in their language and families are organised into matrilineal clans. This means that the lineage is passed down through the mother. Women also have very important roles within the society, they are the only people who can own land and the only ones allowed to prepare the cacao drink that is very important to many of their rituals. In the early 20th century, the Bribri faced some land struggles because of the presence of the United Fruit Company who forced the Bribri off their territory in order to plant bananas. After much opposition and issues with disease on the plantations, the United Fruit Company completely withdrew from the region of Talamanca, taking everything including the railways they had built. In 1977, the Costa Rican government created indigenous reserves including for the Bribri. This granted them control land ownership although some legal settlers from before 1977 have refused to leave, causing tensions.

The second part of the tour was a visit to the Bribri waterfall for a swim. The water was lovely and cold and you could swim all the way up to the waterfall. When we climbed back up from the waterfall, the guy who owns and charges for the parking (actual access to the waterfall is free) has coffee, pejibaye (a weird fruit that tastes a little like a sweet potato and is eaten with mayo, called a peach palm in English) and pineapple on offer for guests. You can also buy a cold coconut and pay a little more to make it a coco loco, a rum based cocktail. He is also a musician and if you’re lucky you might get a tune, not that he needs much persuading!

For my last full day I wanted to make the most of the many beautiful beaches up and down this part of the coast. I rented a bike from my hostel ($10 for 24 hours or $7 for a half day) and wanted to cycle to Punta Uva. I actually went to Playa Grande first, around the far side of Punta Uva. A lot of the beaches blend into one another so Playa Grande actually merges into the beach in the town of Manzanillo but it can be a bit busier at that end because there’s the entrance to the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge. Playa Grande was super quiet, just one small surf class happening and otherwise I had it to myself. Next I stopped at the actual Punta Uva beach which is supposed to be great for snorkelling but it was absolutely packed! Because I was there the weekend before Easter, there were a lot of Costa Rican holidaymakers and this beach is actually quite small so I didn’t stay. On the way back to the hostel, I stopped off at what I think is part of Playa Chiquita. It was quiet and there was a spot in the shade where I lay for a while to enjoy the peace and quiet.

Another early night and then a 5.30am bus took me back to Cartago and back to real life. There’s still much of Costa Rica that I want to explore, I haven’t been to the very popular La Fortuna with the Arenal volcano, I’m desperate to get to Tortuguero National Park, preferably during turtle season, and I also have Uvita during whale season on my list. I’ve also never been to the region of Guanacaste which is known for having gorgeous beaches! It gives me a few things to plan and look forward to over the next few months. Finding a balance between work and pleasure is something that I’m still trying to figure out as well as balancing the budget sheet but I hope there’s a happy medium to be found. Wherever I get to next, you’ll be sure to hear about it!

Surprise! I Moved to Costa Rica

9th Oct 202324th Apr 2024 sarakmorrisonLeave a comment

I won’t bury the lede with this one – as the title suggests, I’m writing this from my new home in Costa Rica! How I got here is a bit of a wild ride and I still can’t quite believe it. I will say that this feels like a very full circle moment after coming here for the first time in 2015, falling in love with the country and travelling in general, and now being back long term in 2023. It all happened very quickly so writing this blog is as much to process it a bit more myself as to explain it to anyone else!

Before I get into the job and the application process, let me give a bit of background. I have history with Costa Rica that goes back to when I was 17. During the summer before my final year of high school, I spent a month in Costa Rica as part of a culture and volunteering programme with an NGO called GVI. I spent a week living with a host family and taking Spanish lessons, two weeks helping to refurbish a primary school and one week doing adventure activities like canyoning, ziplining and white water rafting. The whole experience had a profound impact on me. I think this experience inspired my love of travelling and my desire to see the world. It is also responsible for a large part of who I am now, or at least starting me on the path to becoming that person. I came back much more sure of the person that I wanted to be, independent, adventurous, confident. Below is a quote from a blog that I wrote just after getting back that is still very poignant today:

This trip has ignited a desire to travel in me, one that was already there but has now been sparked. It has also shown me the way I want to spend the rest of my life – seeing the world and helping as much of it as I can. So until next time – ¡pura vida Costa Rica!

I was able to go back to Quepos, the town where I stayed during the first three weeks of my GVI programme, the following year. I was living in Honduras and I had a couple of months off from teaching. A group of six volunteers were travelling together and this was one stop that I insisted on. I visited my host family who were very impressed with my much improved Spanish. I was also able to visit the GVI base, a different one from where I had volunteered but interesting all the same. It was nice to still feel like I was connected to GVI and step back to the past.

Fast forward eight years later, I’m very happily living the life that I’ve worked hard to make for myself. I’ve just finished teaching in France for two years, I’m travelling in Central America and Colombia for two and a half months over the summer and I’m looking forward to returning to Scotland after my trip and finding a job in the tourism industry. This is what I had planned for myself and I was really looking forward to it. Then I got hit with a very unexpected curveball.

I was sitting in a bus station in Cartagena in the north of Colombia, waiting to head to Tayrona national park. I was killing time and checking my emails when one came in from GVI. Back in May I went to an online careers day with them so they had my CV on file. I had also spoken briefly to someone from the recruitment team in June but wasn’t available for any roles because of my trip. I also didn’t really see it as something that would be on the cards for the immediate future but more something I would be interested in further down the line. I wasn’t expecting to open the email and have an offer to interview for my dream job!

The position was as Education Coordinator at their community base in Cartago, Costa Rica. They were looking for someone who spoke Spanish and reading through the job ad, it was like it had been written for me! It wasn’t as a full time English teacher, something I wanted to move away from, but still working in a school, supervising volunteers that would be doing the teaching, helping them with lesson planning, building the curriculum and generally supporting volunteers through their experience. This kind of job has always been something that I’ve been interested in doing and if you look at my job history, you can see that interest permeating through. From my most recent work as an English teacher to working with young adults who want to volunteer with Project Trust, the organisation I went to Honduras with, even to staying involved with GVI as an ambassador, it felt like it had all lead, albeit accidentally, to this moment.

I immediately said yes to the interview but because of our travel plans, I was away from the internet for a few days and didn’t really think about it. When we arrived in Minca, a small, very relaxed town in the mountains of northern Colombia, I really started to prepare for the interview which would be at the end of our few days there. However, as well as getting ready, I was also deciding if I actually wanted the job! The idea of moving to Costa Rica at the end of that trip was such a wild departure from the picture I had painted in my head of moving back to Scotland. There was no easy way to get around the hard feelings so as is my way when I’m a bit stressed, I went for a swim in the hostel pool. At one point, my friend and travel buddy Hannah looked over to see me leaning against the side of the pool staring off into space, looking as if I was having a bit of a breakdown! I probably was but at the end of the swim I had figured out how I felt.

It came down to two things. First of all, this wasn’t the plan! For 8 months I had been determined that I was going to go back to Scotland, be near family and friends, in a country and culture that I am comfortable in and start working in an industry that I thought would suit my interests and skills very well. I found that hard to get over initially. But you know what they say, when you make a plan, the universe laughs. This being unexpected didn’t feel like a good enough reason to say no. I was also in a perfect position to take the job and move across the world – no house, no car, no partner or dependants to worry about. There’s no guarantee that this opportunity would come again or that if it did, I would be in as good a situation to take advantage of it. The second thing was that I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t taking the job because I felt like I should. I knew this was a great opportunity and it is literally the kind of job, maybe even the literal job, that I’ve wanted to do since I was 17 and on a GVI programme myself. I won’t take you through all of the mental gymnastics that got me to the other side of this one but by the time I got out of the pool I had decided – I wanted this job. And I really wanted it.

Not a bad place to prepare for a job interview!

Thus ensued the first interview – it went pretty well despite extremely spotty hostel wifi – and the second – ten minutes long in a hostel co-working space, still with spotty wifi – until one fresh and sunny morning in Medellín when I received an email offering me the job! Fast forward to the end of my trip three weeks later and I was flying back to Scotland for a whistle-stop, week-long visit home. I was originally thinking of heading straight from Colombia to Costa Rica to save the money on the flight from Scotland, even if I lost out on my already booked flight home from Bogotá. However, when I said goodbye to my friends and family, particularly my 96 year old grandad, at the start of my trip, it was for two and a half months, not for potentially a year! With a bit of encouragement (read pleading) from my parents and sisters, I decided that even a brief visit would be worthwhile.

A week of quality time at home was good for the body, mind and soul. I spent five days running around, catching up with friends in Edinburgh and Glasgow, spending time with my gran who had come over from Northern Ireland for the weekend, getting another tattoo, cuddling my dog, meeting my two new cats and visiting my grandad before spending the last two days packing and preparing for another move across the world. You’d think I’d be used to it by now but packing still always takes longer than I expect. One 3am start later and I was off to San José via Paris!

I’ve now been here for a week, I’m settling into life on base and getting into the routine of it here. On the whole, I do feel well prepared for Move Across the World: Part 4812596. Some of the more difficult things about starting over somewhere completely new – the isolation, lack of routine – are already abated by virtue of the job I’m doing and I already know and love Costa Rica, even if the area I’m living in is new to me. Some of the shock of being quite suddenly on the other side of the world from my friends and family when I’d been planning on the exact opposite has been abated by the fact that my sister is soon moving to the British Virgin Islands (a series of islands next to Puerto Rico in the Caribbean) and a Christmas there together might be on the cards!

I’m not sure how much I’m going to share about this job here moving forward. There will definitely be lots of general Costa Rica content and maybe one more post explaining a bit more about my responsibilities and day to day life (let me know if you have any specific questions!). Beyond that (and once I’ve gotten through my hefty backlog from this summer), you’ll have to stick around to find out!

I Can’t Seem to Stay Away

11th Jan 201713th Apr 2024 sarakmorrisonLeave a comment

After all the drama of Montezuma and San Jose, our next stop was the relaxed town of Manuel Antonio. This is a little, semi-touristy town on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. This is the town where I spent a month last summer, volunteering for the organisation GVI and I was thrilled to be able to come back.

Our first few days were spent lazing around on some of the beaches in the area, watching incredible sunsets from our hostel and fighting off a jellyfish (that one was just me).

Our hostel Serena Vista certainly delivered on it’s promise

One evening I went into the neighbouring town of Quepos to visit the host family I stayed with for the first week of my trip last year. It was lovely to see them again and I’m pretty sure they remembered who I am! I was also able to communicate so much more with them this year as well after so much Spanish practice in Honduras. I was invited to stay for dinner and Olga’s food is just as delicious as I remembered.

With my Olga and Willy, my host parents, and Kelly, another volunteer and my roommate, in summer 2015

The project I worked on last year was in a school called Roncador and while GVI no longer work there I was given the opportunity to meet with the Country Director and visit the project they are focusing on this year, El Cocal. I’m afraid I don’t have many pictures to show from the visit – I was far too busy asking hundreds of questions!

Calum and Tom came with me and we were shown around the community centre where GVI work and where the majority of their programmes are run in El Cocal. Their work is so incredible, ranging from English lessons to daycare to after school clubs. It’s exactly the kind of thing I want to do with the rest of my life and who knows, I may even end up doing it in Manuel Antonio.

I enjoyed my time in Manuel Antonio just as much as last time, visiting old haunts and imagining coming back here the next time and the next and the next. This was our last stop and the perfect way for me to remember Costa Rica… At least until I’m back!

Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls… Or Jumping Off Them

5th Jan 201713th Apr 2024 sarakmorrisonLeave a comment

I don’t know how many of my avid readers know already but Costa Rica wasn’t all sunshine and smiles for us. We faced a situation that we never would have imagined we were going to. I won’t give away any spoilers right now otherwise there would be no reason for you to read on but know that there is a happy ending.

We left Monteverde bright and early to catch a bus, a ferry and another bus in order to get to Montezuma, a small beach town on the Peninsula de Nicoya. The town has a lovely feel to it, one that you could easily imagine losing yourself in for a few weeks. Our hostel, Luna Llena, was also one of the the most relaxed places we’ve stayed in. We spent a total of three days in Montezuma and the first consisted of very little. We visited the supermarket, took turns cooking for each other and visited the beach.

Then came Tuesday 6th December. The fateful day. The moment I tell you our plans for the day I’m sure you might be able to figure out what happens but hopefully you’ll stick with it. Our plans for that day were to visit the Montezuma Falls.

It was a bit of a hike up the river to get there but you are rewarded when you reach the first towering fall with a refreshing break from the heat as the spray mists in the air. There are two more falls above and if you clamber up a steep hill face you can swim in the pool between the second and third falls. The last bit was a tough scramble so we were straight in the water. A few others and I decided to jump off the third waterfall after swimming around a bit. Before anyone starts to panic, this is the smallest! It’s no more than five metres high so just like jumping off a diving board.

The daredevils of the group decided that wasn’t good enough so were looking at the second one, a much more intimidating 15m high. This is where things start to go downhill. Tom and Mac jumped off and were all fine but when Jesse jumped off (she would like me to point out that she actually jumped first!) she went in at a funny angle and came up with a sore back. We didn’t have too much time to consider this because when Amy was climbing back up after jumping, she fell back into the water and injured her ankle badly.

I won’t go into the details of everything that happened over the next few hours but basically we split into two groups. Jesse, Lucy and I hiked back down to get Jesse some medical care because while she could still walk, she was in a lot of pain. You may be surprised that I didn’t stay with Amy as she is my partner but I would have been no use. It distressed me too much to see her in so much pain but I knew I could still help Jesse.

The boys stayed with Amy and over several hours and with the help from an American couple from our hostel and the rescue team that turned up they got Amy out of the waterfall. Meanwhile at the bottom of the trail we waited for an ambulance that never came before I had to run back to the hostel, pack up some things and get picked up to meet Amy at the clinic because she was going to need to be flown to San Jose for treatment.

Possibly one of my favourite pictures of the whole holiday (zoom in to see her smile, laughing gas is great)

It was a lot to take in but overnight bags were thrown together, plans made to contact all the relevant people and fingers crossed that everyone would be okay. Jesse and Lucy also need to fly to San Jose because of concerns over Jesse’s back so that night the four of us took our own personal planes over Costa Rica to the capital. Silver linings right?

Still smiling (though I think the morphine might have been helping a few people in this picture!)

We spent that night in a private hospital in San Jose where Jesse was told she had fractured her T8 vertebrate (for those that that will mean something too) but thankfully it wasn’t displaced which would have meant surgery while Amy got away with a sprained ankle.

They were given an attractive corset/brace thing, a boot and enough pain medication to let us start our own Central American drug smuggling ring and then both our invalids were discharged at the same time the following afternoon. The boys were amazing and managed to get all the bags for the seven of us from Montezuma to San Jose and were there to meet us at a hotel once we left the hospital.

We spent three nights in San Jose, with our days spent at a mall doing some retail therapy, catching some films at the cinema and going out for a nice meal courtesy of Amy’s parents (thanks Paul and Penny, it was delicious! Also thanks to Hugo and Cathy Tristram, Jesse’s parents, for the meal they bought us a few days later!)

Lessons learned from this experience – maybe jumping off a waterfall isn’t the best idea. Also, good medical cover is absolutely essential. The planes to San Jose alone would have cost $10,000, as Mac, our resident pilot-in-training told us.

While everyone is fine now, it was a scary and overwhelming time for us, even the ones without broken backs and sprained ankles, and one we’re not likely to forget soon!