Camino Claro Blog

A word from our new guest teacher

Allow me to introduce Melissa Smithers, Escuela Camino Claro’s guest teacher who has been volunteering for the month of August:

I came to Costa Rica at the beginning of July and I absolutely love it here in Pavones. I adore going to the library in the mornings and reading with the children, and I’ve been enjoying helping Jake with his classes as well as working with ECC’s English reading classes. I’ve been working with kids most of my life, starting when I was 12 years old helping out some of my parents’ friends who had young children. I grew up in Seattle, Washington and both of my parents work in the school district there, so it seems natural that I would be involved with kids myself. While I was at Seattle University studying for a BA in Liberal Studies, I volunteered for a developmental preschool and worked especially with kids who had autism and other behavior issues. I also traveled to Mexico for 9 months, in 2009, and volunteered for a number of different projects including a non-profit farm that cared for donated animals and a children’s orphanage. I also taught free English classes during my travels.

I love traveling and exploring new places, meeting new people, and trying new foods! When I’m not working with kids in the US, I’m generally working around food and have worked at several bakery/cafes in Seattle. I feel so lucky to be able to meet all these kids in Pavones and come experience life here! I hope to make it back some day to do more teaching.

Photo by Jake: “the kids have taken to Mel real quick, imagine that. the library is consistently filled with the murmur of reading and the miracle of childrens’ laughter.. ha ha, not joke. and for the most part neither are forced, but merely encouraged with prizes of candy or pencils. go Mel!”

“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

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

That would be Jacob, the new Program Assistant, who as of April 1st, is safe and sound in his new home of Escuela Camino Claro. Literally- IN Escuela Camino Claro- second door on the left across from the kitchen, not hard to find. Much to my delight, he is a talented blogger and photographer (and fisherman, clearly), in addition to being, well, an excellent Program Assistant.

Jacob has his own personal blog called Paz y Playa in Pavones, which is worth checking out if you want some interesting and entertaining insights as what life is like in Pavones, Costa Rica for a rookie. Jacob will be contributing to ECC’s blog as much as he wants to from now on, so keep checking in for a new ECC voice… ahh, so refreshing!

Here’s some of his words to start you off…

Karaw! Karaw!

sounds like a bird, no? WRONG. well, right, but it also sounds like the infamous Tico call so often heard ‘round town here in Pavones. KARAW!

right now i’m a complete novice at so many things. i’m eating rice and beans everyday, but metaphorically, i snack on humble pie every few hours. between spanish, surfing, and fishing i’m quite the freshman. but i’d like to think i’m a cool freshman, ya know? like the one that had the popular older brother or something, cuz people cut me a lot of slack around here and that sure helps.

More to come soon
~Haley

Gerardo Mendoza Barrantes

Gerardo, born and raised in Pavones, is an excellent addition to Escuela Camino Claro’s team. He is an enthusiastic, talented, and experienced teacher who has already proven to be a valuable asset to our community education center. He is also well-respected in the community and active in local politics: basically, he’s a busy guy so we’re lucky to have swooped him up! Gerardo is teaching a variety of levels of ECC’s adult English classes, which have been a great success so far. In addition, he is planning on beginning weekend English classes for high school students, as well as Spanish classes for foreigners in the near future.

Folks, this is Gerardo!

Gerardo attended the area’s local schools and, upon graduating from Colegio Comte, enrolled in the Universidad Latina de Costa Rica in Paso Canoas. He finished his bachelor degree for teaching English and is currently obtaining his Licenciatura, or Masters Degree. Gerardo’s teaching experience is expansive, with three years working in the local public schools and teaching his practicum at Colegio Comte. He has also worked directly in Pavones and its surrounding communities by offering private courses in English and Spanish. Gerardo’s interest in traveling was inspired by his 8-month trip to the United States in 2006 to study the culture. In the future, he says, he hopes to learn more languages, continue teaching, and work in educational administration.

Keep up the good work, my friend!

Blog readers, allow me to introduce you to one of Escuela Camino Claro’s new additions this year:

Jacob Smithers, intern and volunteer teacher

Raphel and I are ecstatic to finally find ourselves able to open ECC’s doors to other individuals and expand the school’s reach into the community. We were connected with Jacob, who arrives in Pavones in April, as alumni of Seattle University. With his non-profit experience and enthusiasm (he has the travel bug too, much like Raphel and I did when we came to Costa Rica almost four years ago!), he is an excellent candidate for helping out at the school. During his six-month commitment, ECC will keep him busy while volunteering with our head ESL teacher, Gerardo Mendoza, as well as teaching one or more ESL classes of his own. In addition, he will be running the computer lab, tutoring home school, AND doing several projects at the public school’s library. Jake, we’re anticipating your arrival!

Let’s hear from Jake:

I was born and raised around Seattle, Washington. I graduated from Seattle University with a passion for understanding and building communities, which has increasingly become extended internationally. After my studies at SU, I found that the concern for our world’s environment went beyond an awareness of the human-nature relationship and is strongly seated in a need for communities that work together for justice both socially and ecologically. During and after my studies, I have been involved in many non-profit organizations, most of which concentrate on youth education. I have volunteered as a teacher and a documentary photographer for Seattle Tilth, the Seattle Arboretum, Bridges to Understanding, and Helping Link. I also worked with Divertigranja, a sustainable animal farm in Oaxaca, Mexico, for several months and spent a month working with Tram Chim National Park in Vietnam. After my time in Vietnam, I was a Fulbright scholarship finalist, intending to return to Tram Chim to work with the youth environmental education programs. I am currently studying Spanish and teaching English at the Seattle Refugee Women’s Alliance. My travels through the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, and Latin America have been invaluable and I’m excited to work with the community of Pavones — sure that my eyes will be opened and my mind expanded by the thoughts and views of the people there. I spend my free time with family, friends, and fútbol!
Indeed, we are excited to have you working with ECC!
Stay tuned for more posts as classes start next week…

Escuela Camino Claro is proud to announce the commencement of its third official year as a non-profit community education center in Pavones, Costa Rica!

After returning to Pavones several weeks ago, Raphel and I began the arduous process of starting the new school year by focusing on recruiting students, organizing class schedules, and integrating new teachers. Not an easy feat, especially when everything runs on “tico time” and the temperature is humid and in the 90s. As we’ve well learned by now, the transition both mentally and physically into life in Pavones cannot be rushed. After the boxes were unpacked and the bats and frogs were ushered out of the school (and the “you’re so white” comments gradually ebbed), we are confident that this year will be more than a grand success. The 2010 vision has begun to take shape and we are excited to share it with you.

New teachers, new classes, new energy

Now that Escuela Camino Claro has proved its integrity and become a fixture in the local community, we feel that we are ready to open the door to more teachers, more types of classes, and more opportunities for the Pavones area’s residents. In doing so, Raphel and I can pass on the role of head teachers and, thus, share responsibilities with other members of the community.

ECC is excited to incorporate three new individuals into our staff: Lisa Thrash (teaching bilingual communication classes with ages 3-8), Jacob Smithers (program assistant intern, teaching ESL and home school classes), and Gerardo Mendoza (teaching adult ESL and Spanish for local foreigners).

Other programs and projects

One new program in ECC’s repertoire is a free tutoring session for high school seniors who need help studying to pass their graduation exams. We’re piloting this program in order to offer motivated high school students academic support when they might otherwise fail and dropout, a widespread problem in this rural area. ECC has hired a local teen graduate from Pavones, Erica Romano, to offer this service and we are looking forward to seeing the students pass their exams this April. Continued projects from previous years include computer literacy classes, community recycling program (an ongoing and very challenging project), and beach cleanups.

Moving towards sustainability…

The definition of a truly sustainable development project is one which will be able to carry on indefinitely with no further international involvement or support, whether it be financial or otherwise. Now that we’ve implemented ECC as an educational development resource, we are focusing on ensuring that the community has the capacity to continue Escuela Camino Claro without our physical presence. Raphel and I will leave Pavones in April to return to the US for the rest of the school year, so our biggest challenge in the next few months is to guarantee a smooth transition to future independence in the hands of locals. Moving towards this goal, ECC is finding more financial stability by sharing the building with other independent teachers and community members, all of whom share our mission. This collaboration, combined with the consistent income from tuition we’ve built over the years, gives us hope that this year will be more self-sustaining. After more than two years and an unbelievable amount of support from outside (YOU!), ECC has the ability to truly bring this community together under one roof and offer a great educational environment with an abundance of resources.

…one step at a time

There is never a shortage of work to be done even when we’re not working hands-on in Pavones. After we leave in April, Raphel and I will have a full plate while managing ECC from abroad and helping to fundraise. Donations are always welcome.  Click here to find ECC’s donation page, with information about mailing checks or using Paypal. All donations are tax deductible and will go towards new programs and materials. We are always in need of used laptops as well.

So, you see, we have our hands full and have begun 2010 at full throttle! A friend told me the other day, “You’re not living unless you push your threshold at least once a day.” I should note that at the time he said this we were climbing up an eroding cliff with falling rocks 300 feet above a waterfall, holding on to vines that we were hoping weren’t snakes (our indigenous “guide” underestimated our abilities and a “hike down to a waterfall” was actually mountain climbing in swimsuits). No joke. Although running ECC isn’t as challenging, we seem to be heeding this advice and experiencing new things everyday.

Here’s to a thriving (and safe) year ahead!

Thank you to all our supporters for your love and inspiration.

Pura Vida from Pavones,
Haley & Raphel