Day 3

Written by DJ DAUGHTRY , student
Edited by Mr. Moreland

I would like to say that today was tough. We woke at 5:30 to eat at 6:30, so we can get out and work. Because this is Costa Rica's rainy season or winter it rains a lot, which in turn means they have early and long days. So similar to the average Tico or Costa Rican we got up early and went straight to work. It was amazing. I personally love working with my hands and doing hard labor because it just feels good to me, but this was different because it wasn't just mindless work, it was work that really helped the community. We helped finish a cement road.
Some of the reasons this job really benefits the community:

• La Carpio is what is know as a squatter town, mainly Nicaragua immigrants,
  
• Because it being a squatter town the people have no right to their land, and
  
• The only way they get full access to their land is to build roads, sidewalks, indoor pluming and such

So by doing this we are really helping La Carpio. And we have another early start tomorrow!

Another thing I want to talk about before I catch some sleep. is a CCI or Cross Cultural Incident. In class before we talked about how there are general cultural differences between Latin America and North America. One we talked about and I observed was the fact that here it's more about team work than self glory. In the Dos Pinos factory we were told how they are a co-op or a cooperative. In a nutshell this means that they are not like a corporation who has one main leader, rather the Co-op has many and equal share holders. All these share holders cooperatively provide leadership. They are all equal and make decisions as such. And this is a major change from American business philosophy.

All in all I'm having a great time. Today was no rain which I loved, and the food gets better everyday. Today we had new drink made out of fruit that grows in the back yard!

Day 3 of Costa Rica

written by Robert Murphy, student
Edited by Mr. Moreland


I am recovering from our salsa dance lessons at "Peppers" night club last night. At Peppers I learned how to dance the salsa. This dance to me at first was a challenge since I didn't know how to dance at all before this experience. I am looking forward to future events where I can show off my salsa dance moves.


The breakfast today really wasn't what I was expecting because we received pineapple and watermelon slices on a plate and then a piece of ham and cheese and a croissant. I was hoping for more of a breakfast that included rice, beans and fruit. This meal shows me that the Ticos have all sizes of meals and that they are not generally the same portions everyday.


Today we went to La Carpio where we interviewed the president of the local community association. I found out that La Carpio is a squatter town which was created 18 years ago.

Five years ago the people of La Carpio held a protest because they wanted running water brought to their area, so that they didn't have to walk two miles to go get drinking water. The people of this community protested by blocking the road that was the only entrance to the city dump. San Jose was unable to get rid of its garbage and the city provided La Carpio with running water. Since the people live in a squatter community, the people of La Carpio don't own the land that their shacks (houses) are on. That means that the government can come in at any time and kick them out.

The service project that we worked on today was to help the community become an official community of San Jose. In order for the community to do this they must build their own sidewalks, roads and drainage control for the run off water when it rains. The roads must be paved and must be a certain length across.

While I worked on this project in the community I noticed that there were stray dogs and these dogs were eating anything they could get from dirty diapers to small amounts of food the community gave to them if they could spare food scraps.

Also I noticed that when we took a water break as a group the members of the community that were working with us kept on working and when they worked they weren't in a rush to finish the project. This is different than America. Usually, American contractors rush to get jobs done so that they get paid.

This service learning project isn't done and we will be going back tomorrow to finish paving a section of the road and finish removing and replacing an old drainage pipe that runs through the road.

Im looking forward to going back out and working in the community