More about day 2

Message from Mrs. Conti:  Now that I've figured out how to blog from my ipad and upload photos, I thought I would share some more with everyone...

photos:  

Our trek through the conservation reserve!

Then we visited the school.

Pegasus kids playing on the playground while waiting for the rest of us to arrive at the school for the first time

The greenhouse structure below, was built ahead of our arrival because it's not safe for our kids to weld.  Thank you to everyone who helped us raise the money, this is an awesome structure that the school is very excited about.  The principle has been there himself working everyday to get this built before our arrival.  It will last a very long time! We will be building the raised beds that will go under the structure.

Our first day of preliminary work included clearing the area of weeds and rocks...

....while others smashed charcoal which will be used in the garden beds as a source of carbon for the plants to grow.  They have very poor soil here in Costa Rica, which is typical of rain forest environments, so this is one method they use to replenish the soil.  Which I'm learning all about as fast as I can, doing research at night because I am considered the "expert" gardener professor!  Oh boy, no pressure, I've never built a garden in the tropics before, but here we go!

After smashing charcoal this is what the kids looked like, although a lot of that came from them painting mustaches on each other!

We had another incredible day today, I will let the kids explain it in detail when they blog tonight, but let's just say I had many, many proud teacher moments today, beginning with Sunday mass at the Catholic Church that 10 of our students attended with me and Javier.  And, ending with their excitement of spending three hours in "home-stay" experiences with local families.  They were all incredibly nervous about spending time with the local families because they felt their Spanish would not be good enough, but by the time we picked them up they were beaming with enthusiasm.  It has truly been a culturally enlightening experience already and our kids are embracing it to the fullest in true Pegasus fashion!