Category Archives: Pictures

Blacktop Chalk Fun

At Damas, the kids loved drawing with chalk. They drew pictures of our team and wrote how cool GVI is. Here are my favorites:

That’s how my culture thinks?

For our fourth Intercultural Communication workshop, we explored how different cultures reason, regulate, and relate on a scale ranging from very rigid, facts based and individualistic to very loose, emotion based and collective. The material for this workshop came largely from my class Environmental Sustainability Across Cultures with Professor Peter Fordos. In the workshop we had representatives from Australia, the US, Columbia, Spain, and the UK. After learning about the different scales and seeing some examples of how the majority of people in a culture tend to reason, regulate, and relate based on the cultural values they are brought up with, we challenged ourselves to place the members of our group’s countries on the scales and then respond to where our countries had been placed. By the end of the workshop, we all gained new awareness about ourselves, our home culture, and the cultures of our friends in GVI. Thank you everyone for another great workshop!!!

Yes, We DO Love To Learn!

After all the walls were painted, the desks and chairs were sanded, given new wood and painted, the electricity was wired, the ceiling was finished, and the students were begging to enter, there was just one more detail to be added to the new English classroom at Damas. With the help of of stellar arts volunteer, Jessica, and the hard work of the the Damas GVI volunteers, we painted a cool graffiti style mural on the wall of the new English classroom.

P1070906 It says “We (symbol of a heart) To Learn.” To make the mural even more special, we had every student from kindergarten to sixth grade place their hand print inside the heart. But, before they did, I explained what the words meant and by placing our hand prints, we agreed that we really do want to learn. One little boy in second grade thought about this and said, “Oh, so this is our signature.” 🙂 The whole project was lots of fun and very motivating for the volunteers and the children. Even though our volunteers come and go, their work lives on. Thank you everyone! Every time I see the mural I think of all the happy times we spent painting it and laughing with the kids together.

Manuel Antonio Monkey

On a recent visit to Manuel Antonio National Park, this monkey decided to pose for me. 🙂

Teens and Construction

P1070733 Two weeks ago GVI Quepos welcomed a special group of Under 18’s. Fourteen teenagers from the United States and the United Kingdom gave up two weeks of their summer to help us perform maintenance and paint several rural schools.

I worked with them as they sanded down metal desks and chairs, repainted them, worked on a second coat of paint in a recently built English classroom in Damas, and brighten two more schools with beautiful murals and fresh paint.

P1070754

At one of the schools, Villa Nueva, the students and faculty wanted to say thank you by dancing a traditional dance for the Under 18’s, and even getting them involved! As a reward for all of their hard work, the group spent the weekend at Manuel Antonio National Park and went surfing. Then, they went on a week long rafting trip. Great job guys!

Tamales for Kinder

Today Joan, Sophie and I helped the kindergarten teacher and parents prepare tamales to sell for a special food festival this afternoon and tomorrow. The money raised will be used to construct a special kinder play area behind the classroom with a garden where the children can safely play. Our job was to wash the large plantain leaves that the tamales will be wrapped it. Then, we cut the large veins of the leaves to make the leaves easier to fold. We had to leave right after the interior mass (massa) was put to boil. Next, more ingredients will be added, left to cook over an open outside stove for an hour, and then once it cools, wrap the mass in the plantain leaves and let the tamales cook a while longer.

During this process, we had great conversations with Gretel’s mother-in-law who is the tamale expert. While she complained that she really wanted 15 packets of chicken seasoning instead of the 12 we had, she thought it might turn out ok. She told us how most of the houses around the school where owned by Palma Tica and that many people had actually grown-up and lived their whole lives in Damas. She also proudly posed with the massa declaring herself the best cook which everyone agreed, is true.

We also had a nice conversation with Don Pedro who is the school’s caretaker. He is 70 years old, but looks young and moves quickly and gracefully. cutting plantain leaves He explained that although he is compensated a little for his bus fare (he lives nearby), he volunteers his time to keep busy. I liked his sentiment that everyone has something to offer, and his is performing errands and doing general handiwork to make the community better. I think the GVI volunteers also have special talents that we offer to the community though English instruction, cultural exchange in the classroom, and supporting kindergarten classes.