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Costa Rica
April 2008
Out of the many things that Adelphi has to offer, one of the most exciting is the opportunity to travel abroad, whether it is for an entire semester or just a week. This year, there were two alternative spring break programs offered by the university, one to Costa Rica, and the other to the Dominican Republic through Levermore Global Scholars. We, Hilda Perez and Alysha Rashid, went to Costa Rica and had an unforgettable experience!
On our first day in Costa Rica, our group of 23 met Gale, the lady responsible for helping the poor community of La Carpio. Gale gave us a history of the area, teaching us that La Carpio was actually made up of poor Nicaraguan immigrants who have crossed the border into Costa Rica to create a better living for themselves and their families. Our tasks over the next few days included building basic bunk beds for the neediest families, doing workshops with the children in the two centers Gale ran, building a road within the community, and painting a mural to send a message to the kids.
Each task was tedious, educational, and inspiring. Our biggest "challenge" was the language barrier, seeing as only a handful of us spoke fluent Spanish. However, that did not stop or hinder us from doing what we came to do, and getting so much more out of the experience. The smiles each family had after we built each bunk bed were more than we could ask for. Watching the children draw their dreams with such passion and hope showed us the determination they had, regardless of their current living status. We were split into different groups for building the road and painting the mural. Building the road was a lot of hard work since we had to make do with the materials provided, but the hard work paid off when all was done (and wasn’t so bad since they played some music for us while we worked J). The mural was also sticky, but life-changing. The kids in the community showed off some of their artistic talent by helping us, so it had a nice authentic touch J. Before we left La Carpio for good, we were able to give back just a little bit more by buying home-made jewelry, purses, and straw/bark animals.
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On our last full day in Costa Rica, the faculty decided to have us enjoy a bit of Costa Rica’s natural attractions: the rainforest. We all had the opportunity to go zip-lining through the rainforest, ranging from 60-90 feet high cables. After the zip-lining, we took a boat cruise on the Sarapiqui River, where we saw monkeys, iguanas, lizards, birds, and crocodiles, who were a bit too close for comfort. It was an exciting experience. This was a full-day adventure, and when it was over, it was time to come to terms that the trip was coming to an end.
The educational experience was beyond what we all had imagined, but the relationships created exceeded anything we all had expected. Although it was such a short time, everyone came with the desire to do the same thing, and that was clear in the way we were all able to not only work with one another, but to enjoy working with one another. The expression, "we had the time of our lives" would be underestimated, but honestly, it was definitely the time of our lives.
Written by Alysha Rashid '11 and Hilda Perez '11
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