8 am: We gather ourselves and all of our supplies for the day and pile into the Cross Cultural Solutions volunteer bus to go to our volunteer placement at a local elementary school. To be sure that our clothing is school appropriate and culturally acceptable, we must cover our shoulders and knees while doing volunteer work here in Costa Rica. Our supplies for the day include a 10 gallon bucket of thin, white paint; paintbrushes; scrub brushes; and various other school supplies.
8:10 am: We arrive at the school and get out of the bus carrying our supplies. We are not allowed to take pictures the first day here, but we will start our volunteer work right away. The school has a gate that is opened and we are allowed to come in. We leave our things at a small table near the playground and begin our tour of the school with the principal. All of the buildings are painted a bright blue color, even the walkways that lead from one building to the next up a slope. We go into the classrooms that are in session and say hello to the children who are dressed in their school uniforms. They are shy at first, but of course so are we; the language barrier from English to Spanish isn't making introductions much better, but thankfully I spoke enough Spanish to converse with the children. Besides meeting the children and seeing the classrooms on our tour, we saw their playground, the soccer field, the chicken coop, el comedor, and their computer class.
8:30 am: As soon as we finish our tour and get back to the table where our things are, we hear a very loud bell. We had no idea what it was for until the younger kids came out of their classrooms and bought snacks from a small "snack shack" by the playground. The school is very small so the proceeds from the snack shack go to help the school. We slowly begin to talk to the kids in groups and get to know them slowly. But soon, the next thing i know i am speaking Spanish with a group of little girls. I ask them basic questions and they answer, the are in the 2nd grade and are all very sweet and nice (and very forgiving of my Spanish). They politely asked me several questions as well throughout the beginning of recess time as we got to know each other better. I tired to answer their questions the best that I could; I went into this volunteer trip knowing how to speak Spanish, but they do speak quite fast! At this point, all of the volunteers were still standing around getting to know the kids the best that they could and I was talking to the girls when something great happened! I had gotten to know two girls pretty well through speaking with them and suddenly they both grabbed my hands and lead me away to go walk around with them and play on the playground. I was so touched that these girls were willing to reach out to me and get to know me and I was so grateful to be in Costa Rica and to have this fantastic opportunity. The girls lead me on a tour again and then we ran around on the soccer field where all the young boys were playing soccer and some volunteers were beginning to join in. We all quickly learned that the kids loved to play soccer. We played soccer, boys versus girls for awhile and we laughed, and had a great time playing and yelled "GOLASOOO!" every time someone scored a goal. Some other popular games that we played with the kids during their recess were caballos (piggy-back rides) and lanta (tag). The bell suddenly rang again and the kids had to go back inside their classrooms for school. We walked them to their classrooms and said goodbye. It was already evident that the kids had their favorite volunteers that they were getting attached to!
9 am: While the kids were in class, we began our volunteer work. We were told that the rocks, that were at the bottom of a slope that was next to the soccer field, had to be removed from that area and taken up to the top pf the slope so the kids wouldn't trip over them and get hurt. We could also use these rocks to line paths and planters around the school. So with our amazing girl power, we hauled rocks up the slope to be washed and painted. There were 30-40 good sized rocks that we had brought up to the top of the hill. We used scrub brushes and water to wash off the rocks and get the mud and moss off before painting them all white. We worked and scrubbed until we heard the bell for lunch and the kids came out again.
11 am: The kids came out for lunch and we played with them some more and they began to ask us what words meant in English, and of course we told them! It was cute to hear the kids trying to repeat the words in English that we said. When their lunch was over, the kids went back to class and we sat down at the small table to rest while we waited to get the paint bucket open to paint rocks that lined a pathway at the front of the school. While we were waiting, the kids continuously came out of their classrooms and gave notes to the volunteers that they likes the most. The notes were all really cute, with drawings and short messages like "te amo" and other really nice things like that. I ended up getting 6 letters in all and i felt really special that the kids liked being around me and thought that I was nice. One of the reasons that I went on the trip was to make a positive impact on the lives of others and to be a role model to the children in the school. I feel that even just on the first day that I have accomplished that. I also think that as a group of young women volunteers, we have shown the younger girls at the school that if you put in hard work, that your capabilities can be limitless. As we began to paint the rocks, the children's school day was wrapping up and they came outside to see us and to play. The boys played soccer and the girls stood around and talked, but as soon as they realized that we were all painting, they all wanted to paint as well! All the kids came over, but we didn't have enough paintbrushes for everyone. Kids: "Quiero a pintar" Me: "Uno momento, es importante a compartir con sus amigos... damelo por favor... gracias" Kids: "Quiero a pintar, por favor" Me: "Si, pero use un poco pinto por favor". I think that my Spanish has been improved already just being here and speaking it so much. Of course my IB Spanish 4 class has helped me learn the language and prepare, but this is Spanish on more of a conversational level. The kids were so adorable and very polite and I has a wonderful first day volunteering at the elementary school. I am looking forward to tomorrow already!
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