La Escuela en Cerros

Today, we went out with the class to visit a school in Cerros, a small community back in the Palm Plantations. The school is referred to as the "chicken coop school". The kids at the school, knowing the tourist industry of next-door-Quepos/Manuel Antonio, want to learn english, but schools with less then thirty students don't receive the funding to hire an English teacher. This multi-age class only has 13 students, from 1st to 6th grade. The teacher was explaining to us that they learn English off of a daily radio broadcast, but since there is not electricity at the school, they need to use a battery operated radio. The radio uses a lot of battery power, so they have only been able to have about three English classes. We are hoping to build a relationship with the teacher and students by coming out on a regular basis and having a shared English class with the students there. Education is valued in Costa Rica, and the teacher displays this commitment, but it was an eye opening experience of the wide range of schools and resources even in our neighborhood.

Elliot playing soccer with some of the kids

Aleasha sharing "Larry, el chico sucio" with the students in Cerros

The Teacher with students from our school and theirs

Making a book...

As a literary exercise, the class re-wrote the story "Harry, el perro sucio" (Harry, the dirty dog), writing about "Larry, the dirty boy". The kids wrote out the story, Elliot illustrated, and everyone helped color!

Elliot's Art Classes!

As many of you know, Elliot has decided to come and hang out with me in Costa Rica for the next six weeks. I am thrilled to have him! He will be volunteering at the school, teaching art and gym, until Christmas Break.

Elliot has only been in the classroom three days, but the kids LOVE him! Not only to they play "don't let the ball touch you when you are jumping on the tramp", they have already finished a few art projects!

Project number 1.... MONKEYS! Below, Cam shows off the Kindergarten work...

Flamingos!

Jonathan, Elliot, and Nick visit!

Garage Sale!

In order to raise funds for the school, we held a Garage Sale at my house! So, we laid out the futon, hung hangers from the windows, and camped out one Saturday.

I was proud of my sign... and my little money pouch, it made me feel official!

Personally, it was one of the most distinct cultural events I have had in a while :) I learned a lot about styles and "gustos" (tastes) of the people who stopped by.

My neighbors would hang out of an hour at a time, and come back every few hours to check and see what was selling.

And, once I had closed the door and packed everything up, people came knocking, asking if they could check out what we had left.

I even had a woman stop me in the street later that week, asking when the next Garage Sale would be and suggesting I get some long streatchy shorts to sell.

While we didn't sell that much, we did make $100 to go towards supplies for the school, and I got to meet a lot of my neighbors for the first time!