I had the most unbelievable day! I met up with others at the Maximo Nivel office to head to our volunteer placement in La Carpio. Id heard its the furthest location they work at, but also tremendously rewarding. I was excited.
After my experience getting home last night, I braved the San Pedro bus system once again. Success! Below is a picture from my walk to my stop. It looks quite similar to my picture from yesterday... houses, cars, mountains & ominous clouds :)
We were strongly recommended to leave ALL our belongings behind at the office before heading to Carpio. We needed no money, no cameras, no food where we were going. Id later find out they werent kidding about that or the distance! We took a bus to San Jose, about 20 minutes. Then another bus headed to Carpio, which took about 45. The walk inbetween that was close to 15 minutes.
La Carpio is remote & desolate, nestled behind a landfill, & off the beaten path of... everything. The bus goes into it, & for most, it is the only transportation. There were a handful of cars, but the dirt roads make it difficult, and even dangerous to drive on with the severe rain in the spring (its spring now). Full of anxiousness, we arrived at our stop & were greeted by Don Felipe, the pastor of the church we will be working with. He will meet us every day at the bus stop, as Carpio is not safe for us gringos to talk through alone. The families here have practically nothing, and even some of our simple possessions are worth them stealing.
We walked down a hill, past a couple fruit stands, sodas (similar to our bodegas in NYC) and kids playing. I remember hearing things like "¡Ay, gringos!" & "Hi! Hello! Miss!" as we passed. The kids here are very excited to have gringos visit them & know what were here for--to teach them English. They ran up to us shouting, "One, two, three..." & smiling their faces off. They were SO unbelievably cute that it took me a couple minutes to realize what was going on around me. The road was now dirt, the air smelled of garbage and waste, & raw sewerage ran down both sides of the road, trickling steadily. Children joined us like a parade & soon we arrived at the "church," which Don Felipe runs.
All of the houses were not much bigger than cars, basically one room, no door, made from scraps of metal & wood. Pretty similar to slums you see on television. Id hoped and prayed places like this didnt exist. Today, I was sadly proven wrong. Ive "borrowed" these 2 pictures from an internet search until I have some pictures of my own to share. (Thanks, whoever they belong to!!)
As ugly as the "precario" was, the children made up for it! A little hand would tug at your shirt, "¿Que te nombre?" I might have been asked twenty times. I sat with a group of kids, 9-11, saying our numbers in English & playing color games. Their English is basic: numbers, the alphabet, fruit, colors, some body parts. If they can get a grasp on English, they break the mold. If they dont receive that, they continue living in the precario. 50% of Costa Ricas economy is based on tourism & English is quite essential.
That said, these two weeks are so important to me. Ive seen something today I didnt ever think Id experience & in an instant, it made sense to me why Im here. They WANT to learn. And that, in itself, overwhelms me completely!
Ok! Time to buy some fruit & hopefully a sombrilla (umbrella) before I head home!
Thank you for this blog. My wife and I are missionaries planning on working in this area, as we have a few years ago already. I as a Canadian and my wife a Costa Rican. I was wondering if you had any contact info as the church were you worked at?
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