Day 5: Community Day with Local Families!

Hello Families,

Today we did two activities called ‘Speed-Dating’ and ‘In The River, On The Bank’ for our Mental Warm Up. For our ‘Speed-Dating’ activity there were 18 in a circle, 9 on the outside, and 9 on the inside facing each other. With that, I (Dasha) led the activity by asking the group questions with a minute each to discuss for us to get to know each other more! And I (Shaun) lead the other activity ‘In The River, On The Bank’. Later on today, we split into groups of 6-7 and went to 4 families to spend the entire afternoon with them.

While we were spending time with our host families, we got the opportunity to exercise our Spanish skills and get to see life from the perspective of a local community member. The homes were very quaint but were rich in laughter and kinship. There was so much to learn from their love and kindness towards us as well as the joy they showed us. During the time we each spent in local families’ homes, we learned how to make Empanadas and Tortillas using a mix of corn flour, cheese, salt, and water (which was delicious). This was a great experience for us, learning more about Costa Rican culture and how they live daily!

Once we returned from the local homes back to the base house at around 4, we had some free time which some spent in the pool, napping, or just enjoying each other’s company by conversing. Some even began to braid and twist each other’s hair for fun during this time. At around 6 we enjoyed dinner with each other which consisted of rice with pork and potatoes with a side salad and a fantastic passion fruit juice.

We then convened for our nightly meeting to discuss the day. Shaun and I (Dasha) then showcased our talents to pass the torch onto our new Leaders of the Day: Nicole and Akeyla!

We then voted on a variety of movies to watch tonight and reached the consensus of watching ‘Mean Girls’ which was how we ended our night. After the movie was over, we gazed at the beautiful stars for a few minutes and headed back to our cabins for a good night’s rest!

Sincerely,

Dasha and Shaun