Blogs from Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 6

October 10 Yesterday, Tuesday the 9th, the money was wire transferred and the paperwork was finished. I'm not exactly the owner of three lots. What I am is the major (only) shareholder of three different corporations which each own one lot. And I am the president of each corporation. Everything is bought in Costa Rica through corporations. The lawyer did the title searches to make sure the property had no liens or other problems. Then we met at 5 p.m. for the developer (another American) to sign over his shares to me. But, in actuality, most of the transactions were done before we arrived at his office. There are six notebooks for each corporation. But only two require entries for passive corporations such as land ownership. The Spanish handwritten entries in the notebooks indicate (I think) ... read more

Green Valley School was started by two Costa Rican women who felt it was important for students to have bilingual education. They started with just the early grades, then added rooms and grade levels as students progressed. They now have students in grades 1-11 (final grade of high school). Most of the students plan to attend university. Sunia teaches in the elementary school. Students can identify English words in grade 1. By grade three they can converse pretty well. By grade 5 and 6 they are pretty fluent readers. The day we were there, the students were able to hold a pretty good discussion of post-World War 1 Europe and the League of Nations and the 14 Point Plan in English - frankly, they knew more than we remembered from our school daze! The doors all ... read more

Since doing a third grade project to save the rainforest, Sunia has always dreamed of Costa Rica. Upon completing her student teaching in January, 2006, she launched herself on a 4 1/2 month adventure as a volunteer teacher in Atenas, Costa Rica. Atenas is West of San Jose... for reference, it is located at about the "e" in Caldera on the Costa Rican map referenced at the bottom of the page. She made the arrangements through an organization called World Endeavors. They selected a volunteer placement and a host family and provide logistical support to their volunteers. She was met at the airport by her host family. When she looks back on this experience, she will have a lot of interesting memories but it will all be dominated by her experiences with this family. Genia, Carlos, ... read more