Goodbye

Samara, a sleepy little surf town located on the Pacific coast of the Guanacaste Penisula in Costa Rica. Filled with a rich communal atmosphere and secluded by their notorious dry forests that give the area a green vivacity from May until December. Samara grew on me during my five weeks there. What started as a general distaste for the culture and isolation of the town turned into an appreciation for the close friendships made with the locals, and taking "pura vida" lifestyle to the extreme. After every trip I have been lucky enough to have been a part of, there is always a handful of moments that will forever hold a special place in my heart and remain the most meaningful and nostalgic long after my return. In the moment, regardless of however simplistic or insignificant they may seem, something about them resonates and becomes the catalyst for personal change. During my time in Samara, it was the Mareas Academy's students appreciation and acceptance of me as a teacher during my stay. The staff was encouraging and extremely accommodating, as they helped me expedite the process of re-planning my trip due to political unrest in Nicaragua. 

Last day at Mareas

 

This is my last day at the Mareas Academy before the school has their summer vacations. After their vacations and with the initiation of the next school year, they will be moving to Cantarrana, just down the road from my host families house so that they can have a more suitable and safe space to accommodate all of their students. I visited the new location with the school administrator and helped with some of the preliminary moving. Not only was my work with the 2nd - 6th graders great for the perfection of my Spanish, but I also started to pick up some of the other languages spoken within the school, primarily Portuguese. I have been able to read Portuguese since I started taking Spanish, but having the rarity of being around native speakers allowed me to speak it.

Samara Gym

One of the gripes I had during my time in Nicaragua was how much unnecessary weight I dropped due to sickness, lack of nutrition, and not being able to routinely exercise. Yes, Nicaragua was more of a vacation, however, during my time so far in Costa Rica, I have been to the gym almost every day except those in which I was sick. Gyms in Costa Rica are interesting. If the gym I am currently attending was operating in the US, it would be shut down. I am almost entirely sure that it has never been cleaned, the equipment is over twenty years old and blanketed in rust, people workout in their bare feet, their is no ventilation, and there is a perpetual sweaty mist that lingers every time you enter. The grittiness of the environment is invigorating, I love it. I have actually started helping the gym owner, Wilsin, set up training programs for his clients. Wilsin is originally from Haiti, and moved to Miami at the age of 20. He lived in Miami for 5 years establishing his business and then moved with his fiancee to Costa Rica within the last year. In Costa Rica, he has learned to speak 3 dialects of Spanish in addition to Creole, French, and Portuguese. 

Wilsin and I 

Beach Hike

I woke up early this Saturday morning and went for a hike up the cliffs near the far end of the beach. While this sounds cool it is actually quite dangerous. Besides the fact that you are literally trecking up volcanic rock in bare feet, you have to be conscious of the time and the tides. To reach the cliff, you have to walk across razor sharp rock that has been sharpened and slicked by the ocean, and cross an estuary that is notorious for saltwater crocodiles when the tide rolls in. There is actually a saltwater crocodile warning in effect on the Guanacaste Penisula of Costa Rica. There was a middle aged American man that got eaten by one in Tamarindo, and two additional people attacked within the last week. The island directly off of Samara Beach is known for its prevalence of crocodiles because of its approximation to a coral reef and food sources. Luckily for me, I saw no crocodiles.

Sick Days and Emergency Room Visit

Today I made a visit to the doctors office here in Samara. I had been feeling "off" the last couple days and after being extremely dehydrated and faint, decided it was time to get seen by a doctor. The reason I waited so many days to be seen was the problem of the traveler's insurance covering the costs from this specific office. Long story short, I was seen, was kept under medical observation for 5 hours while given 3 IV's to counteract my severe dehydration as a result from the virus I contracted. The doctor is originally from Costa Rica, San Jose to be specific, but obtained his medical license at the university of Miami in Florida and returned after his residency. He prescribed three antibiotics, two of which were unnecessary, to which I only devised after talking to my anesthesiologist uncle. The doctor upcharged me, and it resulted in a $600 visit, when really I could have had 1 IV and the cipro he prescribed and been fine. The issue now is that I am down a significant amount of my stipend money and most assuredly have to come home early or do some serious budgeting to prolong my stay. 

Quadlingual Students

Mateo and I 

Today I worked with the second graders, where I led a lession with a group of quad lingual six year olds! This amazed me. All four of their first languages were French, but they also spoke Spanish, English, and German. It was interesting to see these children interact with one another as well as the other students in the classroom. As a language major with a linguistic concentration, it was interesting to see the prevalence of code switching among these quad lingual students. They would often implement syntactical structures, colloquialisms, and words into either their primary or secondary languages into whatever language they were currently speaking, and would switch mid sentence. I was unable to discern if they were conscious of the complexity in what they were doing, or had simply and entirely repressed the distinction into their subconscious. What was interesting within the structure of the lesson was the fact that speaking multiple languages in the classroom was often encouraged, as there was no formal instruction language. While I speak English, Spanish, and read Portuguese, I was out matched. 

First Day Working at the Mareas Academy

 

The Mareas Academy

Its becoming clear that this makeshift Magellan in place of my original internship planned for Granada Nicaragua is going to be an entirely different experience. As my first work day in the small town of Samara, a couple of things are becoming evident. 1. There may be more former expats here than native Costa Ricans. All of whom have retired at the age of 40 and have zero responsibility. 2.  While the town is a vacation spot, it is in  no way "touristy". There is nothing here except the ocean and a small collection of local bars and restaurants. 3. Everyone who lives here works within these restaurants, and because of the close knit communal lifestyle, people are generally over friendly. I arrived at the Mareas Academy at 8 am, as I will be doing for the next 10 weeks. There is a bakery and coffee shop below the school called "Roots", which has locally grown Costa Rican coffee much to my liking. The staff at the Mareas Academy is a mix of expat American teachers, Costa Ricans, and Paul, who is a former engineer from England and is 25 years old. My original internship would have had me working with at risk youth from the streets of Nicaragua, who come from the lower class and have next to nothing. The children of the Mareas Academty all come from relatively wealthy families in some context. The majority of the staff are in their mid to late twenties and follow Florida's home-school curriculum for Mareas to be considered an accredited international learning center. Over my next three months her, I will be working as a tutor to the students whose secondary language is English.