Hello all!

We are currently in La Fortuna, a town near Arenal, an active volcano here in Costa Rica. We are celebrating our last week of work in La Sierra with a fun weekend hiking, soaking in hot springs, and relaxing at the Arenal Observatory Lodge.

This past week in la Sierra, we finished up all of our community service projects...We also enjoyed a walk through the EcoMuseo which commemorates the old gold mines in our area, as well as a visit to a local waterfall, and a hike to an old mining tunnel, located up the mountain from our village.

On a free afternoon in town after a huge downpour in the village this week, we played a fun game of Yoga Ball Soccer which quickly became an enormous mud fight... along with many local friends, we ended up plastered with mud, in a hilarious mud-slinging fight! It was certainly a messy time, but a fun memory for all of us!

When we leave the volcano tomorrow, we will head back to La Sierra. Our despedida (good bye) party is Sunday night, and until then, we´ll be saying our goodbyes, enjoying the area, and getting ready to head back to San Jose!

Abrazos,
Sophie and Sam

Life in La Sierra

Over the past week, we immersed ourselves in the La Sierra community, getting to know the local kids and all the people who have been helping us with our projects and meals. The village is quite small, with about 100 permanent residents, but it is brim with greenery, streams, and animals. At night, locusts and howler monkeys shriek, lulling us to sleep until the morning sun comes brightly and early.

Our projects are progressing well! We have almost completed the roof on the Tres Amigos School, are halfway through painting the interior and exterior of La Sierra´s church, and have finished renovating and painting the playground... We have lots to be proud of already!

As you may know, each student has thought of his or her own indepenent project and have begun working on them... We´ve enjoyed a guitar concert, a lanyard making workshop and a jump roping workshop with local kids, and a mural of the alphabet is underway right now at the entrance of the school... so we are keeping busy!

This past weekend, we went to Manuel Antonio, a beach town on the Central Pacific Coast. After a busy and hectic week, the beach and national park were a welcome reprieve and provided us a nice change of scenery. Some highlights include seeing sloths and monkeys, a boat tour of the mangroves in the area, delicious meals of food other than rice and beans, and playing in the waves!

Back in La Sierra today, it is a hot and steamy day, though we are all working hard and focused in spite of the heat! This afternoon, we´ll all head down to a local swimming hole to refresh and relax before dinner.

Thanks for reading!

Saludos,
Sophie and Sam

Arroz y Frijoles

Today marks our first week as a group in Costa Rica, though it seems like we have been here much longer! Already the students have carved out niches within the group and fast friendships are in the making.

Our first night in our village, La Sierra de Las Juntas de Abangares, was highlighted by a well attended welcome celebration. Traditional dance demonstrations were presented to our group, as well as a hearty, traditional Costa Rican meal.

In Costa Rican cuisine there is a reoccurring theme: rice and beans. Our students have already grown accustomed to these local stables and some have even grown to love them! Besides rice and beans, our daily meals consist or lots of fresh fruits, meats, cheeses, and coffee. We can't even count how many pineapples we have devoured.

We took our first group excursion last Saturday, a day trip to Monteverde, a world famous, mountain top cloud forest. We were given an excellent breakfast and tour at a local, organic coffee farm, then went for an exhilarating zip-line ride through the jungle canopy. After our zip-line adventure, we went to a serpentario, a snake house, to learn about snakes and see live specimines from around the country. Our day was rounded out by delicious, locally-made ice cream and a quiet ride home.

Sunday we headed out on a hike let by a local farmer who also gave a tour of his farm which includes sheep, pigs, chickens, geese, turkeys, horses, rabbits, and tilapia! His hike led us through the foothills surrounding La Sierra to the source of the town's drinking water. It was a beautiful, riverside walk through the shade. After our hike we attended a local bull-riding event, a sort of Costa Rican rodeo. It was fun to see this event which brought out much Costa Rican culture.

Yesterday, we began work on the projects that will represent the bulk of our work load. We are putting the roof on a local classroom, fixing-up and painting the local playground, painting the local church, and teaching English to children from the town. The students are working hard and we so far have been impressed with what they have been able to accomplish.

That's all for now!

Saludos!
Sam and Sophie

Saludos desde San Jose!

Welcome family and friends to the Costa Rica C Blog!

After a long, yet smooth, trip to Costa Rica we have all assembled at the lovely Hotel Kekoldi in San Jose. We have a great group with students from New York, Texas, North Carolina, Colorado, Connecticut, Wisconsin, ...a great representation of the US!

We have been busy getting to know each other, laughing, trying traditional Costa Rican dishes, and getting ready to head to our village and home for the month, La Sierra, on Wednesday!

Some highlights so far include a fun orientation in Parque Espana, walking around downtown San Jose, and a salsa and merengue dance lesson to introduce our students to the basics of Costa Rican moves!

As we get to know each other, we are also all discovering many cultural differences between our cutoms at home and life here in Costa Rica as well as beginning to see the rewards and challenges that come from living in a new country. We have much to learn!

We are all looking forward to our arrival to La Sierra and the fiesta de bienvenida (welcome party) that the town is throwing for us! On Thursday, we´ll dive right into work on our projects. For the weekend ahead we are planning a trip to the nearby Monteverde Cloud Forest. Stay posted for more details.

As the locals like to say, Pura Vida!

-Sophie and Sam

The group has arrived

We've received word from the leaders that the group has arrived in San Jose.

Meet the trip leaders

2009 Costa Rica C leaders: Sam Zucker and Sophie Pauze

SOPHIE PAUZE: Dartmouth College, B.A., Comparative Literature (French and Spanish). Born in France, Sophie moved to Brooklyn, NY, at the age of 8. After finishing high school in Brooklyn, Sophie attended Dartmouth College, where, in addition to her academic pursuits, she studied dance and the arts. These interests took her abroad to Madrid for an exchange term, and to Argentina, where she worked at a not-for-profit arts foundation with a grant from Dartmouth College. Sophie was active in community service on and off campus, tutoring, teaching ESL, and doing education outreach for the Hopkins Center for the arts. Since graduating, Sophie has worked at a web design and development firm, and a café and bakery in Brooklyn. She is also a volunteer at the NY International Center where she is a writing partner for immigrants and foreigners. Sophie loves learning new languages, travel, reading, writing, dance, and yoga. She is fluent in Spanish and French, and proficient in Mandarin.

SAM ZUCKER: Hampshire College, B.A., Natural Science and Social Science. Sam spent the fall semester of his junior year in Costa Rica with the Institute for Central American Development Studies on an Ecology and Sociology field study with a strong component of Spanish immersion. He continued his studies of environmental and cultural issues in Costa Rica in Manuel Antonio when he returned for six weeks in January and February of 2009 to conduct research for his senior thesis, a case study on the environmental and social impacts of tourism. In addition to natural and social sciences, Sam studied traditional analogue photography, drawing, painting, Spanish, and music theory. He is a passionate musician and has been playing guitar for eight years and the drums for three. At Hampshire Sam played on the co-ed ultimate Frisbee team and the men’s basketball team. He also worked for a summer as a day-camp counselor at Camp Thoreau in Concord, MA. He is proficient in Spanish.

Welcome!

In order to keep parents updated on the progress of their child's Putney program, from time to time over the course of the program, the trip leaders will post an update on this blog. We hope that the occasional updates will keep you informed about the activities, projects and successes of the summer, as well as comfort the usual worries in sending a son or daughter to a far-away place.

You should expect leaders to post blogs no more than once per week during the program. We feel strongly that the leaders' first priority is the students and the program. The reasons for infrequent updates will be the very busy schedules of our program leaders as well as inconsistent internet access at Putney's various destinations throughout the world. Please know that any important issues on the program will be discussed and resolved with leaders and parents by phone, not through the blog.

We suggest that you subscribe to the blog during your first visit so that you will receive e-mail notifications at the end of the day whenever a new update is posted. To subscribe, enter your email address under 'Subscribe via e-mail' on the right-hand column of the blog.

Have a fantastic summer!