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Published: October 6th 2011
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It has been yet another eventful week here in the magical Costa Rica! On Friday I took advantage of a free day and headed to the beach with my friend Helen. We got up at 6:00am and took a two hour bus from San Jose to a beach called Punta Leona, about twenty minutes north of Jaco. When we arrived we found a little place for breakfast called Soda Nimar which had the best gallo pinto and jugo de piña I've had yet! After breakfast we called a cab to drive us to the beach and we ended up venturing through this gorgeous jungle on a little dirt road and winding up at this small, pretty much empty beach called Playa Blanca. It wasn't the beach we had intended to visit but we were pleased with the jungle leading right up to the sand. It was beautiful. Unfortunately it started to rain right when we got there, not the sunny beach day we had hoped for. But we made the best of it and made a little umbrella hut under a low laying tree and relaxed in the sand. There were little crabs scurrying everywhere, which was a cool addition to
the ambiance of our private beach. After about an hour the sun did come out a bit and we swam in the warm waters and napped on the beach. All around it was peaceful and lovely, and nice to spend the day with one friend instead of a large group. We left the beach about two o'clock, got another snack from Soda Nimar and hopped the bus back to San Jose. The bus was packed and I had to stand for the first hour and fifteen minutes of the bus ride, which I'm not going to lie, out right sucked. We took the old highway which was very windy and my legs were stiff and hurting most of the way. But it's all part of the adventure and I have a new respect for those that I've seen stand on long bus rides such as that one. When we got to San Jose we took a cab ride home which turned out to be the most epic cab ride of my life! Our driver Leo was blasting "Eye of the Tiger" when we got in the cab, and our drive resulted in us all singing, dancing, and air guitaring to
classic rock for the extremely long ride home (there was A LOT of traffic that night). Leo's party taxi was the perfect end to a nice day with Helen.
On Saturday Shayla, Annamarie, Adele and I went to La Carpio with the director Chrissie of Children Without Borders here in Costa Rica. We got to observe an extremely inspiring project. Here is the gist: There is a town here called Leon XIII which is extremely poor and dangerous, but is being offered money by the government to help improve the town and the lives of those living in it. There is another town called La Carpio, which is even worse off. The residents of La Carpio are primarily Nicaragüenses (Nicaraguan immigrants) and the town is known for its' poverty, drug trafficking, and violence. The people in La Carpio live in "ranchitos" which are tiny, corrugated tin houses with dirt floors. La Carpio has extreme poverty, and receives no aid from the government. An American woman from the peace core came to La Carpio years ago and stayed. For the past twenty years she has been working primarily with the women of La Carpio and helping them to obtain jobs,
and homes, and health care, whatever they need more or less. Together they have built three daycares/schools and a health clinic. They are running co-ops and making goods to sell to help raise money for their town. On Saturday we took 25 women from Leon XIII to La Carpio, to show the women of Leon XIII what the women of La Carpio, (who are substantially worse off than the women of Leon XIII) have done to better their lives. The women of La Carpio were so strong and will-powered, they shared their tragic life stories of immigrating to Costa Rica and having nothing, and then talked of how they have and are still, working together to make changes in their town and their lives. Our plan was to inspire the women of Leon XIII into action in their own town, and I believe we did just that. It was hard not to be inspired by what the women of La Carpio had accomplished. It was all around a beautiful experience, and I'm struggling to put into words what I saw.
After returning home that afternoon, I spent the rest of day applying to nursing schools... how weird!
Sunday I
went to a country club with Lorena where we walked around the club, swam, and enjoyed lunch. It was a relaxing Sunday morning, although we were both disappointed at the lack of good looking men at the pool.
Monday after class our group went to a Toucan Rescue Ranch which was awesome. We got to tour around and learn about all of the different birds this woman Leslie has saved and raised over time. We saw owls and scarlet macaws, and a hawk, and parrots, and obviously toucans! She also had a porcupine, a monkey, a cute little animal I don't know the name of, and sloths! If we want we can volunteer at her ranch which I think would be really cool, however she said she mostly needs help with food prep, and for me I think working with Children Without Borders will be a more rewarding experience.
Monday night Nneka, Annamarie, Gina, and I went to Tipico Latino, an OLDSCHOOL Latin dance club to practice the Latin dances we have been learning. Maria our director came with, as well as our dance teacher Carlos. Overall it was a fun night, but we were definitely out of place
as all of the couples in the joint were easily over the age of fifty. None the less we all danced with several different partners. I danced the most with our teacher Carlos, which was awesome because he's a great dancer and spun me all of the dance floors haha. I danced with a little old man who stared at my chest the entire time, as well as every other woman's chest with whom he danced. Hysterical! Next time though we will go to a place in San Jose which has younger people and plays more salsa music!
Yesterday I volunteered with Children Without Borders and had an incredible day! I got to interview and write a story about a patient in Spanish. I got to shadow the doctor with my friend Charis, and we both learned to listen to the heart and lungs and check the ears, nose, and throat. At the end of the day I got to examine a baby entirely on my own which was AMAZING! Also, Charis and I were assigned a special case. We will be advocating for a little girl with cerebral palsy, and trying to raise money to help her. Much
more on that later, but for now I am inspired and can't wait to help her.
Tomorrow I venture to the Caribbean! More soon 😊
Pura Vida
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