Service and Immersion-- La Carpio

Today, we went to La Carpio, a place that Nicaraguan refugees live, to participate in a service project and work with children. La Carpio is a very poor community, but it is a place that allows a lot of opportunity for the people living here. Upon arrival, we met with a lady named Gayle who works for the Costa Rican Humanitarian Foundation (check it out on Facebook or online-- www.crhf.org ). The foundation is non- profit and is very important in the La Carpio community.  
 
 

To my understanding, Gayle’s job is to relate to the people and help them with their needs. She seems to be some sort of counselor for the people that live in La Carpio. Gayle came to Costa Rica in the 70’s with the Peace Corps then returned to the United States for a couple of years. After many messages from “a higher power”, Gayle returned to Costa Rica in the 80’s to help the people of La Carpio. For more than 20 years, Gayle has been helping the people and bettering the community strictly off of donations. She has helped to provide shelter and jobs for the families here.

While I hoped to learn more about the classroom and the school from Gayle, she was unable to offer much information making me think she doesn't work with the schools like she preaches she does. Therefore, I can only give information of what I observed and experienced in the classroom.

There was also a classroom of four year olds that we visited where students learn English. From what I could tell, there was very nice classroom management. The room was very well organized with different stations with in it—for example a kitchen, a reading nook, a letter/ number area, etc. There were many posters on the walls with the weekly schedule, the colors and numbers in English and Spanish, clothes, etc. It was set up like a normal preschool/ Kindergarten classroom and for the area being so poor I was very impressed.

My favorite parts about going to La Carpio was number one being able to practice my Spanish. I loved that I was able to communicate with the children and they could understand me. My second favorite part was being in what is obviously the equivalent of a Title One school and seeing how happy they were. They were happy to be in school, they were happy to be working with us—it’s experiences and reactions like these that make me want to be a teacher. Just knowing how these children lived after walking around town and seeing their tin and cardboard houses and then coming into their classroom and seeing them so happy to be learning seriously made me tear up. Everyone, even the teachers, were so welcoming and grateful that we were there. It was quite heartwarming.