As a well bonded group the students in Costa Rica are now making strong connections and friendships with the families of San Antonio!
Alison joined the group after Chelsea’s departure. The group had a chance to regroup and revisit their full value contract, and add Alison’s hands to it (see picture below). A week into Alison’s arrival the group is settled and really able to focus on strengthening the bonds with their host families. This weekend the group traveled to San Isidro to spend the day together. They purchased supplies to make dinner for each of their host families. The menus included: Steak and potatoes, green beans, pasta, friend rice and scallion pancakes, pizza, burger, mexican style flautas and pasta bolognese, and a hit with almost every family – chocolate covered strawberries!
The group has made great progress on the community kitchen with just a few more pieces to put into place. With sinks, counters and ceiling up, the students are now working on “repemax” – which is a combination of stucco/drywall. Soon they will also give everything a coat of primer and then paint the whole place “danish blue” with a possible accent of another blue or purple! The group gave a lot of thought to the color scheme and reported they have learned quite a bit about painting and paint colors! They are also designing a mural on the kitchen wall of the Global Routes tree, and everyone in the community and the students will add their hands as leaves.
The community has initiated several intercambio activities including: theater groups, a secret friend/guardian angel activity, and English classes. We are thrilled with the relationship built between GR and San Antonio and are already planning for future projects with the community.
The group is not quite ready to leave, but they are getting excited for surfing in Uvita!
