Camino Claro Blog

Spring greetings from Escuela Camino Claro!

What’s been happening at ECC the past few months?

‘Tis about time for some ECC updates, tidbits, news, and other anecdotes.

Earth Day

ECC celebrated Earth Week by joining in on a community beach cleanup, followed by an Easter celebration at the community center. Lisa facilitated several Earth Day- inspired activities, turning the day into an educational and fun-filled celebration. As you can see, bilingual bingo finds its way into every celebration…

Farmer’s Market

The Farmer’s Market continues is the Pura Vida fashion (relaxed and non-hurried). Now that several of these monthly markets have taken place, it’s catching on! A great way for local ticos, foreign residents, Guaymi indigenous, and tourists to share their goods and produce. Plus we all need a stimulus in the economy, right?

Other Classes and Activities

ECC’s bilingual programs and daycare continue on with great success and increasing attendance. We wouldn’t be nearly as successful without the help from The EDGE Charitable Foundation and their generous donation of school supplies.

Creating a Thank You banner is a great excuse for an art project…

…The final product!

On a four-month-long journey via car, plane, taxi, bus, and rickety wagon, The EDGE school supplies have finally made it to Escuela Camino Claro in Pavones.

It doesn’t look like much, right? A few cardboard boxes, some packages, but believe me- a little goes a long way for this grass roots non-profit community education center. Notebooks, paper, pencils, pens… these bountiful treasures help support Escuela Camino Claro, bring the community together, and nourish our souls!

The EDGE Charitable Foundation

The Early Development of Global Education (EDGE) Charitable Foundation welcomed Escuela Camino Claro (ECC) as a charity member in March 2009. The EDGE Children for Children Charitable Foundation, an international program of the Miami-based foundation, provides environmental education, advocacy, and services to children globally while fostering connections with children in the US. ECC is proud to be among their list of much-deserving international charity groups.

Their spring fundraiser, The Green Masquerade Ball, and partnership with Staples, Allied Paper, and Board Member Jose Martinez resulted in these school supplies arriving on our doorstep lats week!

Thank You The EDGE!!

Escuela Camino Claro’s Farmer’s Market:
Becoming a great success!

Despite the rain, the 2nd official Farmer’s Market brought a great turnout and many parts of the community came together to buy/sell/trade an array of local items. Handmade arts and crafts, locally-grown fruits & veggies, and yummy baked goods were some of the highlights.

ECC will host a Farmer’s Market the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month

Come visit us! And stay tuned for more pictures and information as this event becomes a fixture in the community.

Local Guaymi Indigenous selling their traditional clothing and crafts

More local talent

guau! put some plants in dirt and watch ‘em grow: my basic lesson plan around Las Gemelas’ garden — and it’s working! things are shooting roots, sprouting sprigs, and just asking to be eaten. if you don’t believe me, just look at Naomi, she was so tempted to have a taste that mid-photo she began munching on a leaf.

when we first started planning for the garden and setting things up we all had our doubts as to the outcome of our projected peapatch, but who would’ve thought it’d look so healthy so soon. there are yard beans longer than jump-ropes already. i’m pleased with their gusto and encourage the other plants to learn from their fine example of surpassing expectations. the yucca is above ground and photosynthesizing as we speak. looks real good, except those weird little purple growths some have developed…but neither here nor there since you eat the roots…heh heh. we’ve even got things growing that we didn’t plant. on one of the fence posts there’s a really cool orchid (maybe) growing. hadas conveniently points this out in one of the photos. i’d like to take the time to point out right now how awesome hadas is. such a strong and positive force in the pavones community — thanks for your motivation and support.

~Jacob

Thriving yucca plant

Master-gardener Hadas with her yard beans

I am so very behind getting the community garden posts online, so since a lot has happened in the past few months, there will be a bundle of them coming at ya!  Now on to Jacob’s charming post:

hot dang, the garden at Las Gemelas elementary school has been planted and is growing! costa rica is a splendid location for gardening with children (or children-like adults) because the soil is often rich, moist, and loose, making it easy for digging and planting. so long as you avoid the telltale shard of glass or plastic bag that made its way into the composition of the soil, you’ll be fine.

once things are planted, the kids, and kid-like adults, need not wait too long for some action on the garden’s behalf. the school and myself had a 2-week break and upon our return to school we were stoked with the life and progress that has taken root, muahaha no pun intended but seriously, i even caught a couple rocks smiling at our results.

hadas and i are thrilled with the help we’ve had from all of the students and teachers at Las Gemelas. we’ve also had several volunteers come through and lend a hand, including cal and his group from Oregon. WOOOH cal! (cal is one of the “cool teachers” everyone wanted in highschool— cal rocks). OF COURSE, the garden would be nowhere without the help of alberto, the know-all of gardening. on thursday you could find us and another volunteer, marissa, hauling boards of teak from down the street for the construction of our compost bin. yeah we made quick/beautiful work of that compost bin. marissa and a few other study-abroad students from UCSF have been working with environmental issues and art in Punta Banco, right down the dirt road from Pavones. i honestly plan to take photos of the garden this week to show its progress … before the pinche horses somehow make their way in to eat everything.

i don’t trust horses. sorry all you horse lovers. ya got dog lovers, cat lovers, and horse lovers. i can trust a dog, but the latter two, nope. but let’s not leave on a negative remark. a friend of a friend once said “instead of killing two birds with one stone, wouldn’t you rather feed to birds with one seed?” ha! sounds so corny, but yet so comfortably politically correct…haha

~Jacob

Another successful Anti-Tuna Farm Festival

May was a month of action for the Pavones community as a whole. Pavones hosted quite possibly its largest festival of the year in opposition to the proposed tuna farming in the Golfo Dulce. We had much support in gathering the town’s signatures on the petition; I won’t lie, getting everyone together for an awesome party puts people in a helpful mood. There was great food, delicious chicha (tastes like kombucha, feels like moonshine), rappers and clowns entertaining children for hours on end, a baile that went too late for my tastes these days, and other amazing things I can’t put into words. Gerardo took great control of the events organization and everyone worked together to volunteer their time. It was really cool to see everyone coming together to throw this big awareness festival. A fantastic mural is near completion on the once-white wall of the fishermen house – thanks everyone who worked on that (I know I saw Aurora, Alex, and Hadas there!). Although things seem to come together at the last minute here, I must say the Tuna Festival was a fantastic success.

ECC’s classes continue to go well

I know Lisa’s sure are: to paraphrase her students’ sentiments, they really like: “all of the games, singing, and food.” I can attest to their delightment in these things as I often hear the enchanting little voices singing such titillating tunes as “Clean Up! Clean Up!” and “London Bridge.” I won’t lie; I’ve even had fun playing some of the games – and eating the snacks! I never knew I liked raisins so much… Lisa has combined her two bilingual classes into one and they sure are swell. Speaking of swells, they even dedicated themselves to a pledge of environmental stewardship and conducted quite the beach clean-up – some tourists and locals even volunteered their abilities at picking up rubbish.

My classes are still going strong. Leon, my private home school student, and I become a more proficient studying machine as the days progress. He’s doing a good job at keeping concentrated on our work, even when I know at times images of waves are rolling through his head. Adult computer classes have finally collated into one Thursday evening class. Everyone has been making leaps and bounds in computer comprehension and that includes the kids’ computer/photography class. Of course, this month was exciting for us as the students have been creating a documentary focused on “No a Las Granjas Atuneras” (Anti-Tuna Farm). Gerardo’s Adult English class is still great fun. Lately, students have been working on putting together a travel guide in English, combining both English practice and computer literacy.

Other community happenings

Las Gemelas public school is chugging along like the little engine that can, and has. We’ve really come along way in our community garden there! Just today the students of Las Gemelas got their hands dirty planting a variety of different flora. En lieu of Dia de los Arboles several trees were planted, along with herbs, vegetables and even ornamental flowers.

Escuela Camino Claro’s benefit dinner up at El Castillo Restaurant was quite the fiesta. There was an appetizing spread of pizza, pasta, burgers, and make-your-own-salad with a dozen ingredients! We had a great turn out and a great time. It was so fun to be in such a swanky little place nestled up in the hills of the jungle. Everyone’s support and energy made all of us at ECC feel that proverbial warm and fuzzy feeling.

This month we have had several different volunteers from the tourist community volunteer at the public school’s library and during ECC’s English classes, which was a great surprise and help. I feel like this might be a great untapped resource as a lot of people feel like giving back to the community they are visiting. There may be more tourist volunteers to come. Of course we would like to thank everyone for coming and helping us to be a positive community.

~Jacob

last week Hadas and I hung out in two different classes at Las Gemelas working on some garden-related activities. the kids made posters to show what they thought should go in the garden, what it should look like, and create some ideas. i had a good time, hopefully the kids were inspired a bit about gardening…but i’m not sure i’d go that far. haha. anyways, these boys escaped from class a little early and were then entertained at the window by some traditional dancing. it was pretty cool, although i think they were more likely taunting the boys that were inside dancing. haha. little hellians…ah to be young and rambunctious again. nah, i don’t think i want to go back to that.

~Jacob

Saying goodbye to another great month (and to Haley)- Hello to an even better one!

March has been an incredible month with many successes, as well as a few disappointments. I look forward to April, however, as another busy month with the arrival of our Program Assistant, Jacob Smithers. We will all have a full plate due to the absence of Haley here in Pavones, who is now supporting ECC stateside while I continue to run the school in Pavones.

ECC’s Classes- an emotional roller coaster
The Ups…

After the seemingly endless schedule-rearranging and evaluation of our students’ skill levels, ECC’s Adult ESL classes are going strong.  Gerardo, the amazing, creative, spontaneous, and energy-filled teacher has 15-20 adult students. This is at least double the enrollment Haley and I ever had!! Though neither Haley nor I have taught or own classes this year, one of us served as his in-class assistant. The students really love Gerardo because he is a very well-respected local and talented teacher. The students also value having a native English speaker in the classroom to help, so together we make a great team! I find that I am constantly helping individuals with questions, thus, the students are more fulfilled because they are getting individualized  attention.

Our Bilingual I and II classes for children are also flourishing. Lisa’s upbeat attitude and diverse class activities keeps the students excited. She has a busy Pre-K/Kindergarten class with more than ten 3-5 year olds, so she has hired a Pavones local as an assistant. Wendy Eliana Mendoza is a delight to have working with ECC. She is extremely hard-working and great with the children. She is also in Gerardo’s Adult English classes, so she has been practicing her English with Lisa’s students.

…and the Downs

Even though this year has started off with a bang, there are a few setbacks that I try not to let get me down. Though the Adult ESL class is a success, we are struggling to gather enough students for two of ECC’s newest classes: Spanish for Foreigners and Colegio English, a weekend English class for local high school students. I guess with the busy schedule of the high school students here- 5:30am-4pm Monday through Friday!- they look forward to their weekends to sleep in and forget about education (as to whether or not the local high school educational system encourages them to remember most things is debatable…). I plan to do some more recruiting this week and see if we can boost class numbers so that we don’t have to cancel either of these new, promising classes.

In other unfortunate news, our high school tutoring program failed.  We could not find a dedicated tutor to facilitate the classes, plus we had to accept that this year ECC does not have enough funding to pay a tutor. Hopefully this program can develop over the next couple of years.

Just one more piece of bad news- the recycling program will have to be shut down until further developments. We have about 50 bags of recycling piling up behind the school but unfortunately the pick-up is not often enough to make it worth it for the town. Now that Pavones has a free public trash service once a week, people just throw their recycling away. The incentive to save it (and save money) is gone as Pavones’ citizens do not have to pay for their extra trash anymore. We are still investigating whether or not Pavones can build a community recycling center someday soon.  My fingers are crossed and we’re not giving up just yet!

ECC’s new program assistant has arrived!

To end on a positive note, ECC’s first volunteer Program Assistant arrived in Pavones on April 1st! We mentioned his arrival in our previous newsletters and blogs (which you can check out HERE) but now he is here in the flesh! Jacob has immediately taken to the pura vida lifestyle and I have no doubt that his time here will be very special for the community. He has already started working at the public school library this week, where he loves working with the children and practicing his Spanish while they practice their English. He will start Computer Literacy classes next week and I have already filled all the spaces in the class.

I am very much looking forward to what the following months bring. Our next ECC newsletter and blog posts will be by Jacob, so stay tuned to hear about his first month with ECC in Pavones! Jacob’s blog, a personal account of discovering what life is like in Pavones, is also worth checking out in the meantime.

Thank you to all of our supporters; I am SO grateful to everyone that has made it possible for ECC to continue to thrive.

Pura Vida!

- Raphel

It’s 7:30 on a Monday night and I’m sitting in Escuela Camino Claro waiting for the last class of the day to wind down. Gerardo is in the next room leading his adult English class in basic dialogues (“Hello, how are you? I’m fine, thank you, and you?”), so I thought I would take a moment to reflect on a few things that have happened during the first week of classes.

ECC started its 2010 school year on Monday, March 8th.  It feels amazing to see the tangible results of weeks of hard work and organization. Arranging class schedules, recruiting students, and integrating new teachers for the past month and a half was like putting together a tedious puzzle, but now that ECC is back in action, Raphel and I can unwind for a moment and enjoy being in the role of administrators. At several points last week I smiled and said proudly to myself “It’s working!” There are dozens of students of all ages learning under ECC’s roof!

A few highlights from week one:

1) Gerardo’s evening adult English class overflowed our limited teaching space when 20 students, some returning but mosty new, arrived last Monday night! We barely had enough chairs to go around, but a few people didn’t mind sitting in the kiddie chairs and everyone was able to squeeze in. Raphel and Gerardo’s bike recruit around town the week before definitely paid off! The challenge will be to keep all those students coming every week.

2) Stellar success for Lisa’s Pre-K, or Bilingual I class. Lisa also wasn’t expecting such a great turnout- thirteen 3½  to 5 year olds in one class- so she’s already hired a local high school student to be her assistant. These smallest students get the award for being the most excited to be in school. 

3) Never thought it would be such a joy to be a teacher’s assistant again! No lesson planning and less preparation time, but I still get to hang out and participate in the education. It’s great. I love my job, especially when there are good people working with us.

4) By taking on this new role as “supervisor”, and not “head teacher,” I’ve been able to realize how much teaching experience I’ve gained over the past years and that I have useful insight for the new teachers (who are actually, in many ways, much more qualified than me). Though we may be good teachers, I know Raphel and I can agree that our lack of business experience has made us not so savvy in this arena, but we learn as we go along and make it work somehow.

Up and coming

This week, as the teachers and students settle into the schedule, Gerardo will start his Spanish for Gringos class and Raphel and I will continue to help out, meanwhile getting other activities organized. Computer classes are in the mix (again, high speed internet, yippee), as well as developing community improvement projects for our intern Jacob to help coordinate.

Like I said, off to a great start!
Cheers, Haley