Costa Rica Mid-Term Report

Nature hikes, small theater productions, and lots of games are among the activities that Volunteers have been planning along with the local youth in their communities for their campamentos, or day camps, with the children.  Although school vacation ended this week, campamentos are still going strong in most communities with attendance from five to twenty-five children per meeting.  Campamentos are one of three parts of our project and are key to assuring the educational aspects of our project are getting the attention they deserve.

It is a wonder that volunteers find enough hours in the day to plan the activities for the campamentos with so many other things going on.  (Getting up at sunrise probably helps!) All materials for the construction part of our project have been delivered and some of the more ambitious communities are almost finished with their projects. Volunteers are gaining experience in laying tiles, painting, mixing cement and building walls.  Often they even lend a hand when the tasks are more formidable such as clearing brush, leveling earth, or digging large holes for water tanks or latrines.

Though their attention has been focused on the campamentos and the larger construction projects, they have also begun to submit solicitudes or project proposals for smaller but nonetheless important projects which they have devised with local contacts.  The range of projects is impressive.  We have seen many ideas for school gardens, murals, and additional supplies to complement the main projects on which they have been working.

Although the weekend of the 22^nd and 23^rd is the official halfway mark for our project, staff decided to move the actual midterm event to the following weekend to have time to plan and execute what will surely be an epic event for the volunteers in a little event we like the call the Gran Festival y Encuentro Juvenil.  People from all over the region of Pérez Zeledón have been invited to participate in a day long event that will have three areas of focus: Environmental Education; Healthy Lifestyles; and Youth Leadership.  The event will take place at the polideportivo, an enormous sports complex in our headquarter city of San Isidro with space for every type of sport imaginable, including soccer, tennis, basketball, volleyball, squash, swimming, and many others.  The directors of the complex have been dreaming of reforesting the area with native trees but they have never had the funds or venue to do so.  In our event, we hope to plant over 200 trees to provide more shade for visitors, to attract more wildlife, and to promote environmental stewardship.  Each community will plant several trees and will be responsible for taking care of their trees throughout the year.

AMIGOS and CASA have teamed up with local organizations and national institutions that will each have a representative available to give information on health and environmental issues.  For example, the local clinic and hospital will have a health fair where information on all health related topics, including malaria, dengue, and other relevant illnesses will be disseminated and nurses will be available to take blood pressure and provide information on maintaining a healthy lifestyle.