La Carpio

It took me a long time to process our visit to La Carpio today. It was absolutely incredible to see how much the community has grown and how it is set up in general. By that I mean, how the families by the river at the bottom of the valley are living in tiny homes made of pieces of tin but at the top of the hill I saw a cell phone store and they are building apartments. The “top” of the hill really surprised me. Seeing what Gail and the Costa Rican Humanitarian Foundation has done was so inspiring. These citizens really have made something out of nothing in a sense.  I wish we could of stayed longer or go back to do more community service projects. During our time there we painted a banister from a new staircase that was roughly 150 steps before visiting a school. Once I reached the (almost) bottom of the stairs, I caught myself just looking up. Imagining how things were before these stairs were there, we were told about 400 families lived on that hill. It was so steep and was just dirt- or mud when it rained, which it does a lot here for years and years. Being there felt a bit overwhelming, there were so many emotions. I was feeling so happy and a bit proud that we were able to come and help in any way even though our time was short yet I was so sad people even had to live in those conditions when there is so much technology, and life beyond that little valley that some of those people will never get to see or experience for themselves. I found it interesting as we were walking up the hill from painting to see what was inside some their homes. Many of the doors were open,  if they had a door at all, one house had a huge stereo, and multiple homes were playing music really loud. It made me so happy because they seemed happy, another home had a nice stove but otherwise the houses were very bare and extremely small on the inside from what I could see. At one point a little girl, who was absolutely beautiful, poked her head out to watch us. We tried to talk to her but she was shy, at that moment my heart sank a little because the family had so little. I think of all the opportunities, schooling, toys, food choices that a typical American child would have and if there was a way to even give half of that to them it could change their entire living situation.

                        The level of poverty, both in quantity and quality was just unreal for a lack of a better word even though it is a harsh reality. It made me really appreciate what I have and the opportunities my family and I have received over the years. From a teacher point of view I think poverty and certain home situations can greatly affect a child’s learning, not their ability but if they are hungry or tired or scared or otherwise stressed they will not be anywhere as near focused as someone who has all their basic needs met. Those children that are living in somewhere negative or poverty-ridden communities are just trying to survive sometimes. That being said when we were went into the school, the class (students were around 5 years old) was full of happy, trusting, welcoming, loving students. They sang songs, counted in Spanish and English, used shapes, role-played, shared, created. I recognized a lot of the teaching methods such as putting things in chronological order using a song/tune, having “12” then 12 pictures of something then “twelve” written under it so they can make those visual connections. The teachers had the classroom set up in centers and every inch of space was utilized for learning. They even had a small library in the class. Every student I worked with was engaged 100% of the time and learning, they even knew certain phrases in English. I was blown away by the school and what the teachers were doing for the students given their resources and surroundings. They even had snack time. The teachers obviously had high expectations because they were prepping them for a public school, they kept portfolios of student work and lesson plans. The students followed directions and knew which song meant clean up, they put away their plates/trash from snack in the proper places. I kind of forgot they were so young while we were there.  This experience is making me feel so much more comfortable with the idea of teaching low socio-economic or children of immigrants. It just proved to me that when a teacher has high expectations of children, they will rise to them no matter what they may be dealing with outside of school as long as you give them the tools they need to be successful. I truly believe that the lessons and the things I saw and learned this day will stick with me for years to come.