Vacation! Sort of...

As I wrote in the previous post, our high school students finished their exams the second week of October. This meant that we took two weeks of vacation the last two weeks of Oct. But the first week of vacation wasn't really vacation. We had ADE meetings. Every. Single. Day. All day. It was exhausting, but we hammered out some very important things such as the vision and mission of our organization, plans for a development conference in Jan 2012, plans for visiting groups for next year, plans for school next year, etc.

The good news is, the second week of vacation was really vacation! On Sunday the whole ADE team went to see our local soccer team (Alajuela) play at the National Stadium in San Jose. Alajuela won 3-0. We then checked out the park next to the stadium, which is filled with awesome rainbow eucalyptus trees. We concluded the day by eating granizados and ice cream in the plaza in Heredia.

Reading at the soccer game???

The Chinese built this stadium for Cost Rica.
As you can see, their idea of scale is a little off for such a small country.

Our current intern, Sean

Nathan, Jordan, Chelsea, Frances, Nadia

Monday, Frances and I actually worked, Frances translating ADE's vision and mission and I translating and formatting financial statements for ADE and the school for the last eight months for the ADE board to look over.

Tuesday, Frances and I took off for Playas del Coco on the northwest Pacific coast of Costa Rica. We arrived after a five hour bus ride and moved into a beautiful villa near the beach, courtesy of our friend A. Frances worked with A a few years ago in Washington, D.C. in a program called Peace Thru Culture, which helps young people learn about different cultures and leadership. A brought two PTC groups from DC to visit us here in July and learn about the local Costa Rican culture.

Just blocks from where we stayed was a beautiful little bay called Playa Ocotal. As many of you know, beaches are pretty much our favorite places to be and the sun and heat were a great change after three weeks of rain and cold in Vara Blanca. The bay has a coral reef and the beach is soft black volcanic sand. There were more shells there than I had ever seen on a beach! It was also pretty secluded and we spent most of our three days there lounging on the beach.

Frances and I decided while we were there that we both love the beach and the warm weather so much that, at some point in our lives (hopefully sooner rather than later), we want to live near the ocean in a warm climate. During this vacation we also felt the strain of living by faith and not by salary support. We have struggled with not having pay checks during the whole time we've been here and with our rather diminished savings account, but being in a place where there is wealth all around and everything is priced for wealthy tourists really emphasized how little we have. We walked a lot, told snorkeling guides that we couldn't go because we didn't have any money, and we ate microwaved oatmeal for breakfast to save money.

However, seeing the contrast in that area of the very, very rich playing leisurely in close proximity with people who have very little reminded us of why we are here and why we have chosen to live our lives in solidarity with the poor. Things may seem hard to us, but we still have so much and many people in the world, even in a relatively well-off country like CR, have so little and have no choice in the matter. We have the choice to pick up and leave at any time. So, while our vacation was a great time of relaxation and time alone together as a couple, it also reminded us that there are very real injustices in the world and that we are trying to live our lives in such a way as to challenge some of those injustices in whatever small (or large) ways possible.

Playa Ocotal

Ben went out and walked around this "island" at low tide

Great food! BBQ everything.

There were some amazing shells at this beach!

Frances enjoying the warm water

This is how I feel about b-ball in CR

Amazing cactus hedge

This is where we stayed - not too shabby

We had to walk up a pretty big hill to get to the house

School Update - Noticias del Colegio

So, our students finished their national high school exams the first two weeks of October. These exams determine whether they can move on to the next grade in each of their six subjects (Math, science, English, social studies, civics and Spanish). They spent three weekend days taking all of these exams and the results (unofficially from what we, as teachers, have graded) are mixed. Some passed, some failed. The students who failed the most exams are the students who are taking them in this format for the first time. Those who have seen these exams before passed almost all of them. So we will continue to work and study.

It was also good to see one of our students who dropped out this year and another who dropped out last year taking the exams at the testing center along with our current students. We are down to 15 students now, four have dropped out since the beginning of the year for various reasons. But we are starting enrollment for next year (the next school year starts in February 2012) and many new students are interested in coming.

The cool part is, for the next six weeks until Christmas break, we will be focusing on project-based learning before having break in December and January ("summer" vacation here is from mid-Dec to mid-Feb, even though it's actually winter at that time) and going back to the books next February. This means the students will get to do lots of fun and interesting projects in each of their subject areas along with the book learning. In Spanish class, Frances will be having her students do creative writing for National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org). In English class Ben will be having the students do research projects about different English-speaking countries. He will also be helping C do computer projects and T will be working on a community census project to advocate for local health care. J will be working on a project to maintain our town's Blue Flag environmental status.

We will also be requiring each of our students to do volunteer hours in the community from now on. This is very important as we seek to replicate what we're doing with ADE and strengthen the student's sense of community involvement and service. We're all very excited to be able to do something beyond memorizing facts and figures and being tied to books and curriculum!

Nuestros estudiantes completaron sus exámenes nacionales en las primeras dos semanas de octubre.  Estos exámenes determinan si pueden seguir al próximo nivel en sus seis materias básicas (matemáticas, ciencias, inglés, estudios sociales, cívica y español).  Ellos pasaron dos domingos y un sábado tomando estos exámenes y los resultados (según lo que nosotros como profesores determinamos) no son ni muy buenos ni muy malos.  Los que perdieron la mayor cantidad de exámenes son los que tomaron este tipo de examen por primera vez.  Los que ya habían visto este tipo de examen ganaron casi todos.  Así que seguiremos trabajando y estudiando. 

 
También fue bueno ver que una estudiante que dejó el colegio este año y otra que se fue el año pasado estuvieron tomando exámenes con nuestros estudiantes actuales.  Tenemos quince estudiantes ahora; cuatro han dejado el colegio por varias razones.  Aún así, estamos empezando a matricular alumnos para el año que viene (el año académico comienza en febrero del 2012) y muchos estudiantes nuevos están interesados. 
 
Lo bueno es que, para las próximas seis semanas, antes de las vacaciones, nos estaremos enfocando en algunos proyectos para aplicar lo que han aprendido, antes de regresar a los libros en febrero.  Esto quiere decir que los estudiantes podrán participar en muchos proyectos interesantes y divertidos en cada materia.  En la clase de español, Frances los estará guiando para que escriban novelas (www.nanowrimo.org).  En inglés, Benjamín los estará ayudando a hacer un trabajo investigativo sobre países de habla inglesa.  También estará ayudando a C para completar un proyecto de computación y T estará trabajando en un censo comunitario para poder abogar por servicios médicos en la zona.  J estará trabajando en un proyecto de reciclaje. 

También le estamos pidiendo a cada estudiante que hagan una hora de trabajo voluntario por semana hasta el fin del año.  Esto es muy importante porque queremos que ellos puedan replicar lo que estamos haciendo aquí y también queremos que ellos se involucren y sirvan en su comunidad.  Estamos muy emocionados que vamos a poder hacer algo que va más allá de aprenderse hechos e información y estar atados a los libros.