Volunteering in Costa Rica with Inlex

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I signed up to a 3 week volunteer programme in Costa Rica, living with a 'tico' family, learning Spanish and volunteering in an nursery.....sounded fun, what coud be so hard haha I think I took it for granted that almost every country I have visited have spoken amazing English, and also I think I expected there to be more English speaking people enrolled on the volunteer programme!



Actually my first day, after a long 11 hour flight and a 2 hour wait in passport control (zzzz....) I was greeted by Tanya, the Inlex co-ordinater, who quickly realised my Spanish was non existent.....I managed to understand that I am the only person from England she has ever met and the programme is usually all Germans.

She dropped me at the home of my new tico family and left, I felt so shy and out of my depth as they are trying to ask me simple things like 'Are you hungry'....and im understanding nothing haha.....I went sheepishly to my room in this strange alien environment and thought 'what the fuck am i doing here!' ......maybe I am the most out of my comfort zone ive ever been....All I wanted to do was call my Mum but with no working phone I exhaustedly fell asleep.

The following days were a struggle communicating too, my tico mum and dad spoke no English and I regretted not taking any Spanish classes before I came....but thank god my tico brother spoke some English and was really friendly...inviting me out with his friends and to partys and carnivals (Although sometimes I wanted to say no thanks I'll just go home and stay in my bedroom on my own so I dont have to be in situations where I dont understand a word you and your friends are saying and its SO F**KING awkward)....but sure yeah i'll come. haha



My 1 week of Spanish lessons were pretty useless as my teacher didnt speak English and I think they are used to students with an already basic knowledge of Spanish, so the entire week was way too difficult and pretty much all went over my head.

The actual volunteering I loved....although the kids were also difficult to understand its much easier for me to communicate with them, They all seemed to love me too , the strange foreign teacher who just says 'Siiii' to everything they ask me because I dont understand. I loved working with the kids in CR.



After 3 weeks I decided to prolong my stay by another 3 weeks, the woman in charge of the nursery had offered me a bedroom in her house for free, I was enjoying the work and had also fallen for my tico brother haha....Actually id REALLY fallen for him, going against everything I had been saying in months previous about wanting to be single for a very long time and how I feel so empowered without a boyfriend...



Latino men are very passionate and sexy what can i say :P I learnt a lot from the Ticos actually, I love how they always sing and dance and are not afraid to express them selves freely, I hate the way everyone in San Ramon eats junk food...everything is fried, even the bananas, and the fruit smoothies have 2 teaspoons of added sugar haha! Seems strange to me are the amount of beautiful delicious fruit they have growing here is enough to keep you off of fried chicken forever. But they dont seem very health conscious, well maybe they are too relaxed to care.



Monteverde sticks in my mind as being a beautiful place to visit, views over the mountains are breath taking, the waterfalls in Montezuma and La Fortuna were also amazing and almost all of the beaches are tranquil and pretty 😊



I left Costa Rica after 6 weeks with basic knowledge of Spanish, a yearning to be more expressive and creative, a love for the simple life, a new love in my heart and a certainty that this would not be the last time in Costa Rica....

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Comments

[WelshWanderer]

Looks so incredible! Definitely considering volunteering in South America next Summer. Thanks for sharing! :) x