Students in Costa Rica Find Magic Happening Around Every Turn

Fountain Hills High School students in Costa Rica – Hailey, Leah, and Harley – report discoveries on their Global Volunteers team.

Today was a long and rewarding day. Magic happened around every turn.

The ‘rock mountain’ at the base of our trail-building project was successfully moved by volunteers and students of Colegio one grain bag at a time. At first there were two lines waiting to have their bags filled up with crushed rock. We went to our teammates for fill-ups, and the ticos (Costa Ricans) went to one of their own students. But with a little nudging from our team leader Maggie, the groups started to blend into one solid work team. Some of the Colegio boys were measuring how many shovels-full they could haul in one run compared to the volunteers. It was fun to watch the teens from both countries connect as they hiked the trail. Each time they came back sooner, as the rock was hauled up and then spread down from the top of the trail to the school grounds. Other work groups helped with gardening projects and tool sorting, and another small group observed classes.

Henry helping out in conversational English classes

Somewhere along the trails, some new understandings and shared interests were realized. Some of the boys made Harley and Kelsey S. crowns of flowers to wear. In the afternoon after a hard days’ work, the tico students were begging for a dance session with us. They found some speakers and we headed down to the gym. The ticos weren’t really sure how to get started at first, so Maggie lined everybody up and, it sounded like, told the ticos what to do with us. We started with the basic salsa step. The moves seemed simple enough and yet it was hard for us ‘gringos’ in our heavy hiking boots to feel the groove like they did. It was a really fun experience to dance with the ticos and ticas, a memory we won’t soon forget.

Brittany and Edy dancing it up

On the van ride home after dinner and a night tour in the forest, Leah said that this has just been ‘the best day ever’ and Madi commented that she was so thankful for the students in Costa Rica gave her group the chance to see Costa Rica to the fullest during our Global Volunteers trip.