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!

Lisa held down the fort during the rainiest rainy-season ever (but don’t we say that every year?). This is not an easy task, but when the sun begins to shine and the walls dry out, spirits are lifted once again.

An update from Lisa~

Although the open hours have decreased in the past few months, the children continue to enjoy ECC on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Even through the rainiest season on record, they are still arriving! We have added on a Mystery Center: a weekly theme-inspired creative center that inspires the children in different ways. We’ve already done some painting and gardening projects, and activities like a science lab and a Christmas art project center are in the works for December. Of course, the coloring room, game table, puzzle table, and reading center (where they either read a book to one of the volunteers or they can have one read to them…..depending on the age) are ongoing.

Funds are very low in the community due to the extra long rainy season and minimal tourist money coming in, so the families have really enjoyed ECC’s free programs. Needless to say, the paid language classes dwindled down due to that as well, however they should pick up in a month. The rainy season has been so intense it wasn’t practical or possible to start the Farmer’s Market….but now that the sun has come out, it’s time! The 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month will be our Farmer’s Market day!

In February, with the help of Jaime and Gerardo, we will be incorporating a new program into ECC’s repertoire: A homeschooling program called Maestro en Casa, designed for the numerous high school drop-outs. Escuela Camino Claro will provide the space two to three days a week for a few hours. The tutor will be Gerardo who has a finger on the pulse of the community and knows who needs the assistance and encouragement. Gerardo was last year’s ESL teacher for youth and adults- and they love him! Also, we have four laptops that are just waiting for our computer genius, Dean, to arrive back in town so they can come back to life. Computers have a knack for dying on us in the tropics. Then ECC can offer a free cmputer/Internet lab for the Maestro en Casa program and the Guaymi Indigenous who just can’t afford the high priced Internet service in Pavones. We’re getting ready to do a fundraiser…will keep you posted as it manifests!

Holiday Wishlist

For anyone in the area, the school has a wish list: Spanish books, bookshelves, a floor lamp or large lamp, metal bars for two windows (for the school store). For most of you who don’t live in or around Pavones, donations are always welcome as we continue to pay rent, and electric, phone, and internet bills.

To donate via Paypal (safe and secure!) go to ECC’s website here or contact Haley and Raphel at info@caminoclaro.org

To contact Lisa Thrash: call (506)2776-2245 or (506)2776-2243, or email rainbowcountrysurfers@yahoo.com.

We are on Facebook: Lisa Thrash and Escuela Camino Claro. See recent photos and… say hi

Thank you sun for coming out! and thanks to all of you who have supported ECC in the past, those that continue to support us, and those that will in the future!

Pura Vida, Lisa

A few years ago no one even knew how to work a digital camera…

…now Escuela Camino Claro students have their very own online photography blog! Jacob’s creativity and skill as an educator and photographer has brought this exciting new addition to ECC’s class repertoire.  The kids that are in his Computer Literacy and Digital Photography class are learning much more than the location of the computer’s power button and how to simply type in a word processing program- in a self-directed homework project they created their own photo journalism by taking pictures of their surroundings, writing stories about it, and even helping to upload the pics on the site. They are way ahead of the game when it comes to technology (still struggling with this myself!) AND they put their artistic talents and imagination to use. That’s what I like to see.

Click here to check out the blog. It’s pretty cute (see below) and surprisingly thoughtful. One of their projects was to find all the letters in their names in nature, very creative.

Here’s an example of what you will see- sorry if you don’t speak Spanish. At least the picture is pretty.

Una Flor

de Korana

Mi primera foto es una flor muy bonita yo la encontre en el jardin de mi casa.  Me gusta mucho su color y me gusta mucho su color y me gusta el sabor de la flor tambien por que es muy asida.  Mi mama lo tiene en dos colores en blanca y rosado.

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

“April showers bring May flowers…”

… is a famous phrase back home, however it doesn’t apply here in Pavones. It’s been just over a month since my arrival and I can see the weather beginning to change from rays to rain. As the drizzle turns to downpour I feel my connection with classes and the community becoming stronger. Already in one month I’ve begun to take so much in and have learned new things everyday. There are always many things to discover in a new place, such as how to motivate Tico kids to read several books a week with cheap prizes like pens and pencils; how attendance is affected by weather; which fruits are okay to eat when found and which ones will burn your lips; and how if you leave the cockroaches, spiders, and geckos to live with you in your house, the result is a pleasant decrease in the mosquito and ant populations. Of course, the list of newly learned life skills will continue to grow with my increased involvement in ECC and Pavones – growth that I hope will be symbiotic.

Settling in: steady progress and new projects

With time came responsibilities, and after getting situated in what I’ve likened to paradise, I now possess a full weekly schedule. Teaching English classes with Gerardo is great; we have a lot of very interested and inspired students in attendance. These adult classes have been great practice for my Spanish abilities and, while it was indeed a trial on day one, I now find myself both comfortable and more able. Helping out Lisa with her English-Spanish Immersion classes with the younger kids is good fun — a lot of the kids now recognize me as the guy from the library and recently they’ve even started using my name instead of “muchacho,” all good things.

My three computer classes are up and running smoothly. I’m very excited to begin adding lessons in documentary/photography to the children’s computer class. I’m eager to get the class proficient with cameras, photoshop, blogging, and ultimately, the creation of their own documentary covering an issue they believe is pertinent to Pavones and the world. Hopefully next month’s newsletter will have some more interesting developments on this!

At the library at Pavones’ local public grade school, Escuela Las Gemelas, things with Tatiana (the facilitator there) are fantastic and I’ve never been read to so much in my life… children’s books are such an enjoyable way to begin the day.

We are officially beginning the garden at Escuela Las Gemelas, which is big news! We’re about a week into things and have begun the construction elements of the project as well as getting kids stoked for a garden of their own. The fence is up and it’s official. The fence may cause some upset horses around town, but other than them everyone else is welcome at the garden. Hadas, who is in charge of the project, and I are taking things poco a poco like everything else, but we’re eager to see how the community embraces a common patch of educational, nutritional, and tactile property.

One of my main motivations behind my time here is a genuine peek into the realm that is the non-profitworld. With a good amount of experience working with non-profits and aspirations of building my own, I come with a lot of questions seeking answers and a set of eyes relentless in their search for discovery and enlightenment. Many of my thoughts about the difficulty in raising and running a non-profit have been anything but denied. Any small business encounters loads of hurdles, but poor little non-profits face such a fine line of making enough money while giving as much as possible away to the communities’ greater good. Even figuring out what that “greater good” is can be quite troubling. Everyone has and is entitled to there own viewpoint of what people and the places we live in need. At the moment, ECC is offering classes that seem to be somewhat irrefutably beneficial and I hope the future will continue to help.

Local fundraising

We’re currently working on a fundraiser for ECC, to be held at a local restaurant in Pavones, and hope to get things in order within the next couple weeks. If so, I’m looking forward to finally making it up to Castillo, Pavones’ own fancy restaurant in the mountainous jungle. There will definitely be more updates on the progress of this exciting development and hopefully we can find ourselves together enjoying a meal in benefit of Pavones’ community education center.

Thank you for your love and support both back home and here in Pavones, in particular. I’m gracious for the hospitality of the people here. I look forward to the future and a growing bond between both people and place.

~Jacob

Introducing Jacob Smithers and his first official post straight from the heart of the Costa Rican jungle… told you a new voice is refreshing ~Haley

I have the extreme pleasure of teaching the Adult ESL class with Gerardo, not to mention all of our wonderful students. This truly is a fine example of Escuela Camino Claro’s success! The students all come prepared and eager to learn…Gerardo keeps things interesting and enthusiastic…and last class, things even got a bit delicious.

I’m not gonna lie, two weeks ago when we talked about having a barbecue with the students I wasn’t sure if it’d happen or not. In Pavones, many things are talked about and only some of them are done. It’s for this reason that keeping the community interested in schools and classes can be quite challenging, and it’s for this reason that I didn’t know if we’d be grilling come Monday night – to be honest, I didn’t even know if it’d happen 15 minutes before class! But, Gerardo pulled through and before I knew it he was setting up the barbecue (which I believe was a hub-cap with a steel grate on top, haha) and bringing bags of food into the school. I was so stoked! He asked if I could cook and I humbly replied that I could. With the help of Raphel’s friend from Seattle, Jen, chicken was marinated and salsa was made fresh. While class was being taught, the grill was gettin’ warm, and as the lesson came to its end the barbecue began.

Oh, and how delicious it was!

(My emphatic reaction to the tastiness of this BBQ may have something to do with my reduction in meat consumption, but you can be the judge of that). Everyone went home with food in their bellies, even the coals took a few morsels of chicken for themselves – which was so tragic to Raphel and I, but what can I say, short of sticking my fingers in the coals you can rest assured that everything we could’ve done to save those lost men (a.k.a. chicken) was done. So this one goes out to chicken! And to Escuela Camino Claro, too, I guess! And definitely to barbecues – even if they are hub caps!

(yeah, it looks like a hub-cap) Coming soon, more from ECC on Pavones’ end… by the way I think we have a professional photographer on our hands. NICE

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