Medical work in Alajuelita

This week, I'm doing some medical work just outside the town of Alajuelita, right by the mountains. It's about 1 hour and 15 minutes from San Pedro. I have to take 3 buses to get there. Today, we did home visits around the community. There's also other medical teams here from Florida this week helping out. We are doing a free medical clinic at the church later this week and about 200 people are expected to show up.

The communities we visited were so poor. The people lived in homes that had dirt floors, tin roofs, no doors, no refrigrators or any of the basic amenities we have at home. There's a family of 6 or 7 living in a room the size of a small bedroom. It's unbelieveable to see and it really makes me so grateful for everything I have. It's also been emotional draining this week seeing everything first hand.

During our medical home visits, we treated patients who were diabetic, and who had coughs, fevers, dehydration issues, asthma, ringworm, lice, impetigo. Some of these children have open sores on their faces and it's really sad to see. Given the nutritional level of the kids, these sores can take months to heal. A lot of the medications we gave to these families were all based on donations. The efforts to continue to fundraiser so that we can continue the work here is so important.

 There was this mother we visited who had a 1 year old daughter. She weighed 5x what she normally should weigh. The mom was telling us that her daugther had a heart attack when she was only 4 months old! That's crazy! A lot of the information we gave her was diet related. She was feeding her fried foods, lots of juice drinks, etc. Basic health education is so necessary in communities like this. Our teams are the only ones that really provide them with medical care. Since they aren't legal residents they can't benefit from the government run healthcare programs here.

Another mom we visited recently had a baby girl. This mom didn't know that she was pregnant until she was 34 weeks along. She was having stomach pains and thought it was more GI issues. She went to a clinic and the doctor said that she was pregnant and her baby had died. Later that week, she was still having pains and she went to another clinic and another doctor said her baby was alive! She delivered the next day. Her daughter is about 4 pounds and had some breathing problems when she was born. I couldn't even believe this story when I heard it!

I also met this couple from Florida who were in their 50s. The wife is a registered nurse and her husband is a businessman. They recently sold everything they owned back in the States, moved to Costa Rica for 6 months and will be starting their own medical clinic and orphanage in Ecuador in January. Just when you think at age 50 people would be thinking of retirement, they are starting this whole new adventure in their lives in something they are really passionate about. It's pretty amazing! It just shows that you're never too old to do what you really want to do in life :)

Here are some pictures of the home visits and the community.

 

Downtown San Jose

 Downtown San Jose, from the top, The Post Office, Central Market, and the National Theater

San Jose's fruit market

 This past weekend, I spent the day exploring San Jose. There's a ton of museums, art shops, and I even discovered the fruit market! Definitely a lot of mangos, papayas, and peppers. The prickly red fruit is pretty popular down here. It's sweet and has a gel like texture with seeds once you peel the skin away.

 

The kids at Mision Santidad

Here are some pictures of some of the kids I teach at this church. From left to right, there's Andre and his sister Valerie, Melissa, Ricardo, Kristin, and Jakke. Andre is so advanced for his age compared to some of the other students. Not only that, but he's polite and follows direction really well, definitely one of my favorites! And Synder (the in the red shirt) is the cutest little boy ever!

Feliz Navidad

Here in Costa Rica, people don't really celebrate Halloween, so Christmas trees have been up since late September. I was at the grocery store the other day and heard Christmas music playing in Spanish, Feliz Navidad!

Teacher strikes and earthquakes

The teachers in the schools here are on strike in San Jose for 4 days. There's been lots of protests and media coverage about it. The teachers mainly want higher salaries. In Chicago, the teachers ended their strike before I left. It reminded that even though you're miles away these issues of education and teacher compensation are worldwide. Since the schools are closed for the rest of the week, our community center/church has had a lot more children attend. The English lessons we provide are free, so it's been good to see more kids show up when their regular school is closed.

Last night, I also experienced my first earthquake here! It was about a 6.5 on the Ritcher scale. It occured about 100 miles from San Jose on the northwest side of the country around 8pm. I was in my host family's house and everything started shaking for about 2 minutes-the beds, the pictures on the wall fell, pretty scary. My host family didn't seem to be affected as much, haha. Their daugther continued coloring at the table like nothing happened. They probably have experienced this numerous times, but for me it was definitely a first!

Bungee Jumping!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share some pictures of me bungee jumping! Awesome experience, totally terrifying, but I would do it again! The place where a group of us went bungee jumping is known as one of the top ten best places to jump in the entire world! Pretty cool :)

Feliz Cumpleanos! The Big 25!

It was my 25th birthday yesterday! I can't even believe it! Quarter of a century old, haha! It was awesome celebrating down here, definitely a birthday I'm going to remember. Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone! My Spanish class bought me a cake and sang Feliz Cumpleanos to me. Then for dinner, a group of us went out to Rosti Pollo, a really good Costa Rican restuarant in San Jose. I tried my first Tres Leches cake there, which was delicious! In Spanish "tres leches" means "three milks cake", it's one of those dessert you have to have when you're in Costa Rica. Later, we went out to some of the bars to continue celebrating. There was a huge soccer match going on between Costa Rica vs. Guyana. It was a qualifying game for the World Cup. Costa Rica ended up winning and everyone was going crazy! Pretty much like when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in Chicago..insane! Pura Vida!

PANAMA!

This past weekend, a group of us went to Panama for 3 days!! We left San Jose at 7am and took a 6 hour bus ride to the border. The border between Costa Rica and Panama is a wooden bridge and a lot of the planks were missing so you had to be careful where you were walking otherwise you could fall into the river below. Once we got through customs which was pretty relaxed (they didn't even check our bags), we got on another bus for 2 hours that brought us to the northern coast of Panama. From there we took a 1 hour water taxi ride to our hostel on an island off the coast of Panama called Bocas del Toro. This place was so remote, but the view was amazing! There were white sand beaches, palm trees, tiki huts jutting out into the water-pretty much what you see on a postcard. Absolutely gorgeous! I could have spent another week there! We went kayking, snorkeling which was really fun. You couldn't drink the water there so we had to go to the mainland and buy a lot to last us for 3 days. Thankfully, no one in our group got really sick. There was a ton of seafood to eat and ladies night was almost every other night on the island, which meant girls could drink for free...whooo! :) Overall, really fun trip, glad I got the chance to go!

The kids at Mision Santidad

The children I teach at this church are pretty amazing. It hasn't even been 3 weeks yet, and I'm already starting to develop so many connections with them. Even though this experience has been one of the most challenging things I have done, it has also been the most rewarding and a lot of fun! I honestly feel like each day I am helping them learn a little more English and it feels great! At the beginning and end of each class, the children pray and the pastor thanks us for coming each day and for our commitment to helping these kids. We have to end class about 15 minutes early every day so that all the kids can say goodbye to each of us multiple times, and give us lots of hugs. They're always saying "thank you teacher Lindsey" haha. It feels great that they really appreciate what we're trying to do. I'm constantly reminded of this on a daily basis and it's one of the best feelings in the world.

In a lot of jobs, you don't necessarily get the appreciation from your boss or other co-workers that you deserve. Your thank you for doing your hard work is your paycheck. It's different with teaching for me here-everyday their smiles, hugs, and gratitude mean more than anything!

El nino Jose

At the church yesterday, there's was a 7 year old boy named Jose. He gave me a hug and a high five before English class started. He was really eager to learn his shapes and colors. Afterwards, he told me that his home got burned down over the weekend. Some of their homes have no beds, couches, no toys except maybe a soccer ball. However, it's their home. Now, after this fire, their home/shelter is gone. Just when you think it can't get any worse for them, it does. I don't even know if Jose is homeless now or living with another family member. I never would have guessed this happened to him because of his affectionate nature and willingness to learn and show up to class yesterday. Children are so resilient and these hardships affect them differently than adults.

San Jose's first street sign

In San Jose and throughout its suburbs, there are no street signs at all. I don't even know what street my house is on. It's all by landmarks and how many feet you are away from them. Sometimes it's even by the family's last name. For example, the program headquarters are located 75 meters from the Farmicia on the right in San Pedro. My house is located next to an auto mechanic garage called "Mulfasa". I got into a taxi and instead of telling him the intersection of what street I wanted to be dropped off at like I would back home, I just told him Cedros and the name of the auto garage and he knew exactly where that was!

Just a few weeks ago, San Jose installed it's first ever street sign in the downtown area. All the Costa Ricans have been upset and are protesting it. They figure they have been fine without street signs for this long, why add them now? City officials say they installed the first street sign as an attempt to make it easier for tourists. Shouldn't tourists adapt to Costa Rican customs when they visit and accept that San Jose doesn't have street signs? It's part of their way of life and as foreigners we need to embrace it. 

Cedros/San Pedro

This past weekend, the entire city of Cedros where I live and San Pedro were without water for 2 whole days. People weren't able to shower, etc.. because they were doing construction on the pipes. I can't even imagine this back in Chicago, having the entire city without water...it's crazy! My host mom filled up a jar of water on Friday for my roommate and I. We used that water for 2 days to brush our teeth and wash our hands...so gross! Finally, the water came back on Monday morning.

I usually only get hot water for about 5 minutes in my morning shower, so I've definitely learned to shower pretty fast.

On Tuesday, I killed about 2 "cucarachas" aka cochroaches  in my bedroom and shower before I left for my Spanish class. Pretty typical morning.... 

Pura Vida!

Here are some pictures from this weekend. We went to Dokas coffee plantation, La Puntarenas beach, La Paz waterfalls, and the Poas volcano. Coffee is one of the major exports here in Costa Rica and the Dokas family is the 2nd richest family in Costa Rica. They said the lighter the coffee bean, the more caffine. The darker the bean, stronger the coffee, the less caffine. I didn't know that, thought it was the opposite!

The Poas Volcano erupted about 2 years ago on Christmas Day. This national park is visited by about half locals and half tourists.

Enjoy!

This weekend!

Headed to La Paz Waterfall, Poas Volcano, and the Doka coffee plantation on Saturday with some friends. Then, Jaco Beach on Sunday. Can't wait!!

My teaching project-Iglesia Mision Santidad

I started my teaching project this week at Iglesia Mision Santidad Cristiana Emanuel. It's a church that also serves as a classroom and community center. It's located in a really poor area called Tibas. The children that we are teaching live in "precarios" also known as the "projects" or slums. The majority of these children are of Nicaraguan decent. It's unfortunate that where these children live determines their path in life. Our mission is to help close those educational gaps and help these children learn English so they can have better opportunities in life. I help around 15 to 30 children a day and most of them know little to no English and are still having trouble learning their own native language, Spanish.

The pastor of this church, Maria, started this project to keep kids off the streets after school and to supplement their education. Most of these children live in houses made with tin roofs and dirt floors, and no electricity. It's really unbelieveable. It was eye opening to see where these kids live and I have never experienced anything like this ever before. After seeing these conditions first hand, I am so grateful for everything that I have in my life. I forget how lucky and blessed I am to have grown up in a supportive environment in a good area that allowed me access to a great education and better life opportunities.

Here's a picture of some of the kids I'm working with and the church we teach at. There's no electricity, no air conditioning, and last week the church only had a tin roof. Some volunteers helped out and built a roof in less than a week!

Rum Luna

Last night, a group of us went to a Costa Rican dance festival up in the mountains called Rum Luna. There were musicians, dancers, and authentic Costa Rican food which consisted of chicken rice and beans, pork, fruit, fish soup, and fried bananas or plantains. The best part of all was the amazing view from the top. You could see all of San Jose and the other surrounding cities. After dinner, they had a fireworks show too!

At this festival, I met a guy from Australia who is 29 years old and in my teaching program. He has been traveling for 4 years non stop! It's pretty awesome what's he's going and he's never looked back since! He spent the last 3 months in Mexico and before that spent 5 months on a boat in the Carribean. He's traveled the world and supplements his travels by travel writing and playing professional poker. He was on TV's World Series of Poker a year ago, crazy!! 

Spanish and salsa classes!

Since I hardly know any Spanish, I signed up for my first month of classes. They start tomorrow at 9am- I'm excited! I also found out that this organization offers free salsa classes every Monday night-sign me up! haha

Orientation Day

Today, is our first day of orientation. From my host family's house, I caught the bus to the main office headquarters in San Pedro, about a 10min ride. It only cost me 200 colon or 30 cents! It's crazy, transportation is so cheap here! At orientation, we found out more about our project sites, learned about Costa Rica culture and customs, met other volunteers, and took a crash course on how to teach. It's a lot of information to take in, but I'm really excited to get started! We took a city tour of Credos and San Pedro and here are some pictures below. San Pedro is pretty much like a "Costa Rican college town", lots of people, mostly younger because of the University of Costa Rica and University Latina. The Mas x Menos is there grocery and basic clothing stores. The Jazz Cafe is where some of San Jose most popular bands come to play in the evenings.

First Day in Costa Rica!

Hi Everyone!

 I'm finally in Costa Rica! I arrived yesterday and met some other people in my program from New York, St. Louis, Australia, and North Carolina, Canada, London, California, and so many other places. Then, we got dropped off at our host families. The town I'm living in is called Cedros, it's about a 15 minute bus ride to San Jose. My host family has 2 children, a daughter named Pamela who is 6 years old and a son named Samuel who is 14. My host mom speaks very, very little English, but that's what Spanish lessons are for! My roomate, Mackenzie is from St. Louis and she's doing the teaching project as well. She's been here for almost 3 months now.

I had my first meal last night and it consisted of noodles, carne, vegetables, and a cup of coffee. It was pretty good! I'm not a big coffee drinker, but it was delicious! Then, afterwards, a few of us went out to a restuarant for a drink. Had my first Costa Rican beer called Imperial, which was great!