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.