Moving Into the Heart of Costa Rica

Ryan Oliver, Social Studies Teacher

During our time in San Jose we've clearly experienced vast differences in culture, values and day to day routines of life. Students are facing challenges related to food, friendships, and schedules that would wear down even the most energetic teen. However, we remain immersed in the familiar rhythms, stimuli, and anxieties of modern urban life. With the exception of Thursday's visit to Poas and a brief walk through a dwarf forest, mostly ignored in the excitement of having more time with our Costa Rican friends, nature has been a pretty ornament along concrete streets and a flavorful fruit juice served at breakfast.

That is about to change...

Friday morning we leave our hotel and our electronics behind to wind our way up over the mountains surrounding San Jose and the city, arriving four hours later in the coastal city of Puerto Viejo. From their we will board canoes and be transported up the river to Bribri territory in Talamanca, one of the last remaining indigenous communities in this country of 4 million that often ignores and downplays it's native roots.

This will be much more than a physical journey as it entails removing ourselves from the hectic but comfortable pace of city life with its time schedules, appointments, and rapid movements from one stimulating activity to another. In Jacob Needleman's terms, we will be leaving the world in which time is the master of men and women to enter a world of slow natural rhythms of rain, birth, decay, death, and rebirth. In listening to this world and slowing down our minds and bodies to meet it's pace, we hope all will have a better chance to experience the "conscious time," that can emerge when we move slow enough to experience both the inner and outer sounds usually drowned out under the din of city life.

Joseph Conrad and other western colonial writers were simply wrong when they described these pockets of "uncivilized" community as "darkness." They may be dark in a literal sense as a result of minimal electricity and technological advancements that fill up the nights with sound and light, and we may not agree with all their traditions and values, but they are better described in the richness of color they hold for those that look and listen closely and with more curiosity. As we travel tomorrow we will be entering the Heart of greenness and brownness, of community and independence in the face of dominating brutal forces, and the Heart of life lived in relationship with the natural world rather than at war against it.

As a logical result, there will be no internet access and no blog postings until we re-emerge Tuesday afternoon. May we continue to face challenges head on, supporting one another as the small travelling family we have become.

Courtney, 17

Here I am again sitting at the desk with so much to say but words can't express...
I've come to the realization that I am actually living an emotional, thrilling, and life changing experience that I will look back on for the rest of my life. This trip may have even opened me up to the idea of studying, and possibly living abroad. I hope this becomes a reality in the near future.

Today, we hosted a party for our tico/tica pals and had so much fun. I did my best to hype up the crowd and break the ice with hopes of making everyone more comfortable. Sure enough, everyone joined in and we shared different childhood games and taught each other new dances. My pen pal Paula also brought me a gift, which in my eyes symbolizes friendship, and I couldn't feel more reassured that we are in fact friends forever. I hope that all our pals get the chance to come to America so they can feel exactly what I'm feeling at this very moment!

In a way, this all feels like a dream. which is possible, because all great dreams come to an end and I know that my stay here in Costa Rica is up within the next 7 days. I really hope that I get to come back and really experience all there is to experience soon!!!

Yo amo Costa Rica muchisimo!!!!

I DON´T WANT TO LEAVE JOSE (and I don´t just mean ¨San¨)

Samantha, 18

I will make this short and sweet since it´s late and I haven´t posted in a while..

We visited Poas and that was cool, but it was not so much the best part about today. Our group rode in two seperate busses getting there and the teachers split us up so that half the bus was full of City High kids (Gringos) and the other half were our pen pals (Ticos). I´m not that shy towards the Ticos since they fascinate me and I know I won´t see them again so I didn´t mind not sitting with friends however I felt sick so I didn´t want to really sit with anyone.

I ended up sitting in front of Courtney on the bus and next to her sat a boy named Jose. He was not either of our pen pals so we didn´t have much to talk about. At first he seemed stuck up because when Mr.Oliver was picking a radio station he kept saying no to every station, but this was clearly wrong. I noticed he had an iPod and was listening to it so Court and I asked what music he liked and he gave us each an ear bud and picked songs for us to listen to. I was surprised when he began playing Katy Perry and other well known USA songs! Once we started singing he even joined in and I was so amazed/couldn´t stop laughing.

We made a pit stop and I was feeling better so I moved to the center of the bus to be in the middle of all the action! We all tried to sing songs that everyone knew, including but not limited to: Feliz Navidad, Hot n´Cold by Katy Perry, and the theme song from Titanic (Which Jose admitted to crying when he watched it). It was so fun and then later in the night we had a party at our hotel and most of our pen pals came including Jose! We all tried dancing, but everyone was too awkward so we ended up playing intense hand games which we got so into that it was crazy. I don´t want to write a novel here, but I feel like today was my favorite. Both Courtney and I almost started to cry when we were hugging our pen pals goodbye because we knew we would probably never see them again.

Don´t get too upset though, because there were plenty of napkin facebook addresses exchanged so all is well with the world! Thank goodness for social networking!!