Our First Day of Service at Colegio

Team Journal Entry for Monday, March 7, 2016

Breakfast at 7 a.m. Morning message and then off to Colegio, the local high school that specializes in tourism. We met with Ana Ruth’s ecotourism class. Lots of laughs as we and they introduced ourselves in each other’s language.

A student, Ronny, gave us a short tour of the school, particularly showing us the new hospitality lab, currently under construction and almost complete. We then split up. Sharon and Barb to help in English conversation classes, Vicki to help students sand ice cream buckets in preparation for painting, and Robert and I to work with students to clear rocks and dig up stray plants from the proposed garden area.  All of us were working with students and had the opportunity to talk with some of them one on one.  Lunch came from a nearby shop. We ate it at a picnic table on the porch of a single classroom building on a hillside up above the other school buildings.

After lunch we met with Jorge’s ecotourism class and again shared introductions in each other’s language. Vicki and Sharon then worked with students on conversational English. Barb painted buckets with some of the students while Roberto and I again dug in the proposed garden with Jorge and some of his students.

Volunteers and students painting buckets to be used as planters

Our workday was shortened by an hour as the students were sent home early to give teachers time to make plans for some special needs students. That gave us a chance to shower before a 4:30 meeting with our team leader, Maggie, where we went over some of the week’s plans and completed our team building exercise. Tatiana served up a delicious dinner at the Mar Inn.

After dinner, the five of us volunteers piled into a van and headed for a “night tour”. This consisted of a group of about eight walking through the cloud forest with a guide and with flashlights seeking wildlife.  We were quite fortunate to see some very interesting animals and flora. We found a three-centimeter lizard and a beautiful bright green palm pit viper snake with its prehensile tail climbing a shrub. There were also several large birds sleeping in the trees – a brown jay, a falcon, and a toucan. Most exciting was finding a three-centimeter headlight click beetle with two bright lights on its forehead.

We also spotted a large slough trying to sleep high up in the trees. She was swinging from branches trying to avoid our flashlights. Mike was a great guide.

Entry submitted by: Bill

Message of the Day – Maggie: “Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Barb and Robert painting ice cream buckets with student Jessica