{"id":2862,"date":"2012-07-18T16:53:25","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T16:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.globalroutes.org\/?p=2862"},"modified":"2012-07-18T16:53:25","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T16:53:25","slug":"weekend-getaway-to-rio-palenque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/2012\/07\/18\/weekend-getaway-to-rio-palenque\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend getaway to Rio Palenque"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Kirti, Nicole, Emma, and Spencer<\/em><\/p>\n

Nuestras queridas familias y amigas,<\/p>\n

Our first week in San Luis has been fantastic.\u00a0\u00a0We\u00b4re all fitting in nicely with our families and getting used to our daily routines. The community is so close-knit that all members alternate working alongside in the construction of the comedor. The town is very agricultural so everyday there are fresh vegetables and freshly-squeezed orange juice.\u00a0\u00a0As our first week came to a close, we made good progress construction-wise and finished up the foundation of the comedor and the towers for added support. Although the work can be brutal, it is equally rewarding.<\/p>\n

As a retreat from our work, Adam and Caroline planned a weekend away in the\u00a0\u00a0Biological Reserve of Fundacion Wong in Rio Palenque.\u00a0\u00a0After driving 3 hours in a tiny bus that magically fit all 17 of us, we arrived at the nature reserve full of indigenous and tropical plants. The hotel and environment were beautiful and serenely quiet\u00a0\u00a0(we were the only ones staying there).\u00a0\u00a0Plus, all 15 of us students were ecstatic to take hot showers without a bucket.\u00a0\u00a0Though all the rooms were spread out, we spent the entire weekend as a group.\u00a0Adam and Caroline planned many activities that were aimed to center the group and have fun while doing so.\u00a0For example, one of the games included was \u201cSea of Confusion\u201d, where we identified the groups\u2019\u00a0\u00a0important values by writing them down on pieces of paper and using them symbolically as stepping stones to cross the Sea of Confusion with certain rules and obstacles (the room).\u00a0\u00a0It may sound confusing, but was a very fun game that filled the whole group with laughter.\u00a0\u00a0Food-wise, even though we were hoping for a variation in grain, we were all still content with rice\u2026 (mas o menos).\u00a0\u00a0Although construction is hard and life is very different, we have adapted well to everything except the food, which we have all found the most difficult to adapt to with the constant rice and bean diet here.<\/p>\n

Our first night in Rio Palenque in addition to our first week of construction proved too tiring that our entire group chose to sleep INCREDIBLY early\u2026\u00a0\u00a0The second day in Rio Palenque was also full of games and craziness.\u00a0\u00a0The group divided into teams to play \u201cPirates Booty\u201d, a game that relied on communication and trust.\u00a0\u00a0While Caroline and Adam placed objects randomly in the grass, we formed groups of 3. \u00a0One team member of each group was blindfolded, the other was a signaler (who couldn\u2019t talk but could see where the objects were), and lastly, \u201cdirectioner\u201d, who had to give directions but could not see and had to rely on the hand movements of the signaler).\u00a0\u00a0Later in the day we took a beautiful nature walk through the forest to the river for a refreshing swim.\u00a0\u00a0After a difficult, hot, and sweaty walk, we finally reached the wide river and eagerly jumped in to relax.<\/p>\n

Later during our excursion, we met to discuss our secondary projects.\u00a0\u00a0In addition to our central project, which is to build the comedor, we also wanted to pursue other smaller projects that we thought would additionally improve conditions of the community.\u00a0\u00a0After much discussion, we decided on several projects that we thought would be useful and enjoyable.\u00a0\u00a0Some of our projects include painting a mural of the Global Routes logo (the tree with the world) accompanied by our hand prints, names, and a quote to represent our goals.\u00a0Another group of students were interesting in improving the sports areas of the schools.\u00a0\u00a0For example, the kids love to play \u201cbaseball\u201d, but don\u2019t have a place to do so.\u00a0\u00a0Hence, they wanted to\u00a0\u00a0paint a baseball field and teach them how to properly play it.\u00a0\u00a0Today, we also worked on removing the roots from the children\u00b4s \u201cplay area\u201d and now are working to fill the pot holes in.\u00a0\u00a0Some other projects may include: creating a mini library, holding an American barbeque for the community, and cleaning their central park.<\/p>\n

On the final day of the excursion, we played some fun games just to let loose and have fun, and ended with an activity called \u201cBerge\u00b4s Circle of Love\u201d that the whole group greatly enjoyed.\u00a0\u00a0We walked into a room lit by candles and sat in a circle with our backs facing the center of the circle so no one could see one another. Every couple of minutes, Adam would pick 3 new students to come into the center of the circle, and he would say statements such as \u201cTap someone who has made you laugh\u201d, or \u201cTap those who you have had a conflict with\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Anonymous people would\u00a0\u00a0tap you on the shoulder for your different talents and challenges, and the activity proved to be a very calming and eye opening experience. On our final day of the excursion, we squished back into the mini mini mini van and headed back to our homes in San Luis de Las Mercedes.<\/p>\n

Adios por ahora!<\/p>\n

P.S.\u00a0\u00a0Yesterday, after a loooooooooooong work day from 8 am to 4:00 pm, we took a quick dip\/bathe in the river followed by a fun soccer game with the community!\u00a0\u00a0A great way to end the day!<\/p>\n


<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Kirti, Nicole, Emma, and Spencer Nuestras queridas familias y amigas, Our first week in San Luis has been fantastic.\u00a0\u00a0We\u00b4re all fitting in nicely with our families and getting used to our daily routines. The community is so close-knit that all members alternate working alongside in the construction of the comedor. The town is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecuador-galapagos"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}