What have we done with our time here?

As we wind down our Costa Rica adventure, let us take this time to look back and answer the questions “What do Dara and I do all day?” And “Do we feel we have made the most of our time here?” Well, it would be great to be able to tell you we've "found ourselves" and now know exactly what we want to do with the rest of our lives, but the truth is, we don't. I think we do both feel like we've made the most of our time here though, and that it's been time well-spent, and very much appreciated by the people we've worked with.

Dara is still working at the INBioparque a couple mornings a week and really enjoying it. She has been working on a global, service-learning program called Roots & Shoots. Roots & Shoots was started by Jane Goodall in China years ago. Now there are thousands of groups around the world in over 100 countries participating in the program. This year, the Costa Rica Roots & Shoots program was launched along with the Costa Rica Roots & Shoots website, the first spanish-language R&S website in the world.

What R&S mainly does in Costa Rica is work with kids in schools, both public and private (6 schools this first year), to inspire kids to help people in their community, help animals, and help the environment. Dara really likes the lady she is working with, Claudia, an amazingly intelligent, wonderful Tica lady with a PhD in biology and an incredible ability to relate with people of all ages and educate them about biodiversity and environmental issues (Claudia was the one who invited us for Thanksgiving - quick aside… she lives in a small gated community not too far from us. In the center of her community is a small playground with a trampoline (liability laws are a lot different here). When the kids in her neighborhood weren’t able to all get along on the trampoline, Claudia, even though her kids are full-grown adults and no longer visit the trampoline themselves, arranged a kids-only meeting and had them come up with a set of rules. And, by the way, Thanksgiving dinner was great!)

Dara has gotten to go out to visit some of the schools to help the kids decide on which long-term projects they want to do... it's all decided by the kids after a session where they brainstorm to make lists of projects that they could do to help their community, animals or the environment, and then vote without teacher intervention. Dara has also done a "sales call" to recruit a new school into the program for next school year. One of the biggest things they did was hold a huge meeting/celebration for all the participating Roots & Shoots schools for International Peace Day. The day was filled with activities for kids, a parade including a school band, a speech by a representative of the Oscar Arias Peace Foundation (unfortunately, not the newly elected President, Oscar Arias himself), a speech and a play put on by one of the school's students (both about peace) and lunch and a childrens' concert. The day was a huge success and, hopefully, only the first annual Peace Day celebration of many here in Costa Rica for Roots & Shoots.

Dara's also been volunteering at 3 different places where she's been teaching music/English classes to preschool and kindergarten aged kids. Thanks to attending years of music classes pretty much continually with our kids from the time Ari was about 6 months old, Dara knows all the songs, words and movements to lots of songs from those sessions -- and she even attended the teacher-training class before we left thinking that this might be something she'd be interested in doing in the future. So, using only songs with simple words, and lots of movement, Dara's worked with all the kids at Ellie's old preschool, Ellie's current kindergarten class at her new school, and at the orphanage in the next town over to try to teach some basic English vocabulary (movements, emotions, fruits and foods, colors, numbers, etc.) and an early appreciation and love of music. There's nothing like the classes we have in the US here (mommy and me-type music classes for babies to 5 year olds) and all the kids absolutely love their time with Dara, running up for hugs at the beginning and end of each class and asking repeatedly throughout the week when she's coming back for the next class (at least that’s what the teachers tell her!)... she's going to miss all those little ones.

Also, I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but believe it or not, she was taking an acupuncture class. Yes, that’s how to DO acupuncture, not how to be a patient…she recently dropped it since it was all in Spanish and she was going to miss a bunch of classes for various reasons, so luckily for me she never got to the point where she had to bring her homework (i.e., needles!) home!

She has also continued to be busy with her board responsibilities for our temple back in Yardley. Over the summer, she took two online courses about marketing and improving management of volunteer resources for the temple. And, she attends meetings via conference call whenever possible, even taking the minutes for some of them.

As for me, I have been busy with my work selling flowers. In my spare time, I have been learning about solar energy - something I have long been interested in. I have been able to spend a bunch of time with Bruce Carey, the owner of Solar Costa Rica. He is a very nice guy and has a tremendous amount of experience. I also have gotten to make a few sales calls and help install some solar hot water heating systems.

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