Written by Zaylee
Hola Families!
We are approaching the end of week two of our beautiful experience in Costa Rica. This past Wednesday we began living with our homestay and got to work building the aqueduct! Throughout the week, we have made tremendous progress at the aqueduct and got to know our wonderful families. We have spent time enjoying the warmer weather and kind hospitality of the community.
We have also locked into friendship camp with high energy and positive aspirations to bring to the community that has welcomed us with the same energy. Friendship camp planning included many team conversations, well thought plans, and open mindedness. Friendship camp planning ended after two rainy afternoons and soon we opened it up to the community. The camp itself was a huge success with big smiles and connections to the youth of El Brujo!
We then got the opportunity to learn the art of creating brown sugar from a sugarcane plant to many blocks of pure, homemade brown sugar! Creating the brown sugar led to many new questions and ideas about the practice. We learned about the importance that brown sugar making holds and the downsides of industrialization. We were informed that the practice had been around for 6,000 years. We quickly started the process with carrying the cut down sugarcane and hand grinding it down to its juices. We then enjoyed a wonderful lunch hand packed in banana leaves made by our lovely host families! We sat and worked through the meal plans for our excursion to the wonderful beach house located Quepos. Together we exercised the qualities of a good leader including, compromise, sharing thoughts, listening to others, understanding boundaries and planning for errors. Soon the brown sugar was ready and we got the opportunity to taste and appreciate the hard work of brown sugar making. We tried it mixed with peanut butter and alone, which was a sweet treat for everyone! We then headed home for an after a somewhat restful day with new knowledge on the art of brown sugar.
Phone calls home held some sadness but also grew the relationship between our group. Many of us got the chance to feel vulnerable and also help our friends grow from sadness and find positivity through group energy! In between phone calls the group waited by playing games, creating bracelets, finalizing planning for our excursion and bonding with each other even more.
Today we made our way to Quepos for a beautiful beach house excursion to seek a restful moment from our busy schedules. We went shopping for food. We made a small stop to look around the touristy side of Costa Rica. We have since arrived at the beautiful beach house and are getting to know one another even more! Life here is a little bit of everything and holds the saying “pura vida” with pride. Every experience is teaching the importance of community, inquiry and knowledge and we are so excited to see what this beautiful country has in store for the next two weeks! “Pura Vida!”
