AdvSpanishGSLCostaRica

I’ve been on a GSL trip before, to Thailand, but I had an extremely limited knowledge of Thai. Being on this trip, being able to communicate well with my host family in Spanish, makes this trip extremely special. So, I want to write about a couple of the most interesting conversations I’ve had with my host family, where I learned something surprising about this community.   The first conversation was one I had with my grandfather, Eliodoro, or Elio for short. He’s 70 years old, and is one of the community’s experts on medicinal herbs. Here, they use almost exclusively medicinal plants for every different condition, from stomach pain, where they have a variety of different teas and herbs, to broken bones, where they make casts out of leaves and plants. They only go to the city to see a doctor on rare occasions. Elio had one such disease where he had to see a doctor. The doctor said the disease was so bad that he would have to go to the city of Limon to get treated every week for t...

I’ve never thought as much about the water than I have since arriving in our host community. Living in the mountains, the water is very clean, and is fairly easy to access. There are mixed opinions on how people in this community can use the water. Some say they don’t have to worry about how much water they use, and that it’s not a problem for Bribri people. I’ve observed some people leave the tap running while going to grab different batches of clothing, which, coming from the relatively water-conscious Seattle, was a little disorienting. Others in the community say that one day Earth will run out of water and, although many people may think that water is unlimited, it is not. Regardless of how you choose how to use the water here, the water will always choose YOU. With the crazy amount of rain when arriving from Puerto Viejo yesterday to today’s constant periods of rain, getting nearly completely drenched and muddy is inevitable.   Today, we did this week’s typical service of ...

  A Typical Afternoon   Today marked the final day of our mid-trip reflection and was mostly occupied by travel and preparation for our return to our host community. Instead of summarizing our travel, I would like to discuss the typical afternoon schedule I look forward to each day.   Afternoons here are completely different from afternoons at home in Seattle. In Seattle, my weekday afternoons are routine and unremarkable: extracurriculars, homework, dinner, sleep, repeat. Afternoons at home are primarily preparation for the next day instead of a celebration of the present. Here, it’s the opposite. Evenings are the highlight of my day.   Once our Spanish and cultural studies end around 3:00 PM, the fun begins. First, we head to the river and bathe for an hour. The cold water is incredibly refreshing under the hot Costa Rican sun.   At around 4:00 PM, we walk to “La Cancha,” a housing area surrounding a small field where Chloe, Ana, Emma, Zubi, Profe J, a...

On our full day of the mid-trip we spent more time enjoying Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, reflecting and eating good food. Our day began with breakfast at our hotel, in which I toasted (and retoasted) several pieces of buttery and crunchy bread.   Next we spent time journaling and reflecting on the days we've spent so far in our host community. We are halfway through our time here, and we set goals for our remaining half. At the end of the day we went around sharing our goals. One of mine that was echoed by many others was to ask more questions and be intentional about getting to know our host families. For me, I think this includes finding balance between understanding my position as a guest and feeling at home in my family’s house.   Mid-day we ate lunch at a restaurant that lived up to Matt’s promise that it would not disappoint. Whipped cream and waffles are so tasty!!   We spent the afternoon enjoying the beach. Off in the distance as the sun set we watched as bi...

A Welcome Change of Pace   Today was the day before the mid-trip reflection to Puerto Viejo (or Ulaba, the Bri Bri name for the town, according to my host father). Waking up an hour earlier than usual to meet by the village school by the shore of the river, we packed into canoes and made our way downstream, where we waited for a bus to take us into the beach town. Many in my bus joined in a karaoke session, much to the chagrin of those not participating. We didn’t have access to a device to reference songs or lyrics, or even a radio to try to learn some local tunes, so we had to make do with what we had in our heads. We put our brains together and cranked out some poor renditions of classics from the likes of Queen, ABBA, and Michael Jackson, gradually shifting across genres and time periods as more memories trickled into our collective consciousness. My personal favorite was our cover of Bohemian Rhapsody, complete with overlapping voices and multi-part harmonies, which included...

Golpe de Estado (card game) A coup de tat (unsure how to spell this) in Spanish is a “golpe de estado” which in a literal translation is a sort of “punch to the state.” In every spare second we’ve had on this trip (as of late) we’ve been playing Coup, a game based on skill, logic, and deception. It’s been such a significant part of our lives recently, so I wanted to share the rules and our adaptations.   Our largest change is that this game is possible to play with one deck of normal cards (two decks is better but one works just fine) as opposed to the specially printed cards and coins (though those are nicer). We’ve also added some extra cards that I’ll explain in case you want to try this at home for the full Costa-Rican GSL experience.   To start, take your deck of cards and separate out all the red Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks, Twos, and Threes (there should be two of each card). Deal two cards out to each person playing (most of the games I’ve been involved in have had...