Day 4 First Day of Major Work at the school

Today started out like all other days with Javier waking us up at 6:30 am.  We all got up and went immediately to the San Rafael school for our first real work day.  When we got there kids were on the swings, play structure, and even the tables.   Even though the school is small almost all of the kids were playing soccer.  We joined in the soccer game, Pegasus students vs. the school.   Immediately after we started playing, we knew that we were going to be killed by kids younger than all of us.  As they say in boxing, we were “saved by the bell”, and called in to eat breakfast.  The score was 5-2.  Breakfast was delicious and almost everybody loved the food.

 

 

After breakfast we got straight to work. We split up into three groups: crushing charcoal, leveling the beds for the garden, and repainting the kids playground.  Kids from the school were chosen to work alongside us.  At the charcoal smashing group we smashed large chunks with shovels into small pebble like pieces.   After the charcoal was crushed we shoveled it into a tarp so we could paint the wall behind it.  We saw that the paint was fading so we decided to repaint the wall.  We let the San Rafael kids do most of the painting work, they really liked it!

 

The next job was leveling the ground where the raised garden beds were going.  It took a long time to level the beds because the ground was so rocky and bumpy.  Then we moved the wood from the art room and started placing it in the raised beds, the next step will be to secure the wood to the beds and then cover it with plastic and then begin to fill it.  The principle of the school wants to do several different types of soil combinations based on research from EARTH University here in Costa Rica, to use as science experiments to see what grows the best.  The crushed charcoal will be mixed with compost, rice husks, coffee husks (because of the local coffee supply, it would be more sustainable than rice) and maybe even coconut husks.

 

 

 

 

Painting team: The old run down playground just got better.   While everyone was lifting wood and smashing charcoal the third group helped repaint the playground.   With the artistic talents of Kinsale the group repainted the whole playground.   Every inch of that faded playground was enlightened by vibrant colors.  After they were done the play structure looked just like new.  Once the kids saw it they loved it!   We also embellished all the tables and chairs with fantastic new colors.   Stripes and dots were covering the whole thing.

 

 

 

We also did a leadership style and temperaments lesson today with Javier.   It was sort of like the kiersey test we took online back at Pegasus.  Cards were passed around the room and we were asked to take three that best describe us.  Based on the cards we chose we were put into groups to see who similar thinkers were and who were different.  During that exercise a lot of us learned what type of people and leaders we are.

 

Blog Written by Adam Watson 

Thoughts about Costa Ricans:  The people of Costa Rica are very helpful.  They really like soccer.  We believe that they don’t want anything specifically but they will take whatever they can get.  We don’t believe that they would ask for anything, but rather accept anything you offer.  The people like to be involved and share with foreigners or unfamiliar people.  In conclusion you must think about what they want because they won’t ask for anything.

 Thoughts from Michael sherlock