GR Costa Rica is wrapping up their semester. Here are some anecdotes from their final weeks in the host community.
Fun Happenings
On our last full weekend in San Antonio, there was an event in the community on Saturday to raise funds for the church. There were back-to-back soccer games for the little kids and also for the community “veterans,” those 30 and up. Starting at about mid-day, Daisy, Berta, and Marielos — three ladies from San Antonio — were cranking out a concession stand from the community kitchen, which was built by last summer’s Global Routes group. They had baked goods like empanadas and bizcochos for sale, as well as a hot meat and potato soup called olla de carne, and sweet arroz con leche. Meanwhile, a crew arrived from the local radio station Radio Sinai to record a tertulia, or conversation circle, with the community. We got to be featured on the show! One by one, we passed the microphone around and answered questions about our stay here, our highlights, and perspectives. It was a little nerve-racking to be on public radio but certainly an honor!
Another fun event these past few weeks has been planting at both the school and in San Antonio. At the school, we planted about 20 plants, including small trees, flowers, and shrubs. In front of the church in San Antonio, we planted seven baby rose bushes. Hopefully, as the bushes come to bloom, the relationships we built here will also continue to flourish, despite the distance we leave between us.
A New Friendship
Throughout the trip, during our time at the school, we have been making friends with Yancy, the school cook. After lunch, we’d always chat and hang out in the kitchen, talking about the happenings at school. Yancy has her own form of wit, her comments ostensibly rather direct for us, but we learned to laugh along with her and became very close. One day, she invited us to cook lunch at her house, which, in the US, would have been a seemingly normal invitation. However, in Costa Rica, such a gesture is an honor. We accepted, of course.
After sending a few texts back and forth, we decided we would make pasta primavera and chocolate chip cookies. We arrived at her house and she showed us inside. The rooms were quite spacious; her house was much bigger than what we’d been accustomed to in San Antonio. She gave me (Jonah) a personal tour of her home, and noted many times how all of her products are American. A quick glance in her cabinet showed bottles of Hershey’s syrup, tubs of Nesquik strawberry milk powder, Oreo’s, and many more American brands. You could tell right away how proud she was at her collection as we moved to the laundry room where we found Shout stain remover and Tide soap. Even her rice and beans were from the States. It turns out that her husband lives in a small apartment in New Jersey and sends Yancy a huge box of supplies every month. Her kitchen, too, was more American than Tico, housing a large, stainless-steel refrigerator and a shiny new GE oven, various other appliances lining the walls of the counter.
We began cooking the cookies and chopping the veggies for the pasta, and Yancy persuaded us to make two more desserts. At the end of the day, in addition to the pasta and cookies, we made brownies and cheesecake! It was all delicious! We were then invited for dinner as well, which Yancy and her daughter, Nayarith, cooked. We had nachos and burgers, which, if not completely like the ones we know at home, were still “muy rico.”
We ended up coming back to Yancy’s twice more, the second time making pizza, and the final visit making burritos. We were all sad to leave, but we were glad we made a friend in Yancy. We still WhatsApp her from time to time, sending her pictures of our food or selfies. Yancy has hosted other students before us, so she knows the drill. When we tell her we’ll definitely come back to visit, she calls us liars, because all of her other students have told her this, but not one of them has come back or kept up frequent correspondence. So we send Yancy pictures and tell her about what we’re doing, and jokingly tell her that we’ll never come back and forget about her soon. It’s a playful sort of relationship!
Bittersweet Goodbyes
We’ve known all along that the day would come when we had to say goodbye to our friends and family in San Antonio. It was something that we had been anticipating. Not that we were thinking about a great amount, we just were aware that it would arrive. When we had just one sweet week left, I (Sarah) thought that I was ready to come home. I was sad about leaving, but felt that it was a natural time for us to return home. But when I woke up in the morning of May 10th (our last day in San Antonio), I already had tears welling in my eyes. Saying goodbye was so difficult, even painful. We have developed real relationships, real friendships, real love with the people of San Antonio.
We had several despedidas, or goodbye parties, during our last days in San Antonio: first pizza with our host families, over which we all shared anecdotes and perspectives from the 9 weeks of our homestay. On the final evening, we invited the whole community to a party with ice cream and American-style chocolate chip cookies and brownies that we made for them. After we gathered in a circle, again sharing stories, we enjoyed dessert, then some of us broke out in bachata dance before final pictures and hugs.
As we loaded up the bus the following morning, many of us had tears in our eyes or even streaming down our faces. Going from living with them everyday, to transitioning to life back home is already so much more challenging that we could have imagined. One great reminder, though, is that if we hadn’t of felt so sad about leaving the community of San Antonio, the experience wouldn’t have been as beautiful. We left with tears in our eyes but love in our hearts!
Looking forward to Final Travel
We are now in the beach town of Uvita, where we are spending the next few days decompressing, processing our experience, and soaking up some sun. We also have some fun activities lined up: surf lessons, whitewater rafting, and a final banquet in San Jose. While we can see our arrival home on the nearing horizon, we still have several days to revel in the beauty of Costa Rica!
Time to live it up!
Pura vida,
Sarah, Mariah, and Jonah
