Mar 3-9: School, Sol y Arena

Things felt a bit more productive for me at the escuela compared to the colegio this week. On Tuesday and Thursday, I co-facilitated a few workshops alongside counterparts at the school. These teachers are all part of the school’s “Convivir” committee which helps promote things like coexistence, and character/community building. These workshops were considered diagnostic in nature. We briefly explained to students terms like conflicts, safe spaces, and unsafe spaces and subsequently asked them to identify places like the school where they feel they are most safe and where they are more vulnerable to conflict. Ojalá (God-willing), this kind of activity will help teachers and students alike be more cognizant of their surroundings and can be a catalyst for future conflict resolution and prevention programming. In total, I believe we worked with about 8 groups of students, ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade.

At the colegio, I spent much more time behind the scenes than in the classroom. The week prior, I went class-to-class pitching some of my ideas to high school students for ways they can get involved in community service projects. Next week, we will formally begin the process of enrolling students in specific projects and matching them to tutors within the school. I’ll play a significant role in helping with this, so this week was primarily spent preparing for this Inducción process for Servicio Comunal Estudiantil. 

Outside of school, a lot of my time was dedicated to running-related activities. On Wednesday, I had to go into San José to pick up a race packet for Saturday. One of my friends from Peace Corps happened to be in town that day, so I met him in San José for a bubble tea before running to the packet pick-up. As I’ve gotten more comfortable navigating San José, my commutes have become a combination of bussing + running and it’s saved me a lot of money. 

On Saturday, I headed to the coastal town of Puntarenas to participate in the aforementioned race called “Sol y Arena”, or Sun and Sand. This 10k race is one of the more famous and traditional competitions in Costa Rica and is known for being run entirely on the beach. Before the race, a couple of Peace Corps volunteers serving in communities nearby came into town and met me for lunch. It was great to catch up with them. The race itself was a neat experience but was brutally hot. I got goosebumps only a couple miles into the race and felt lucky to make it to the finish line without walking. I didn’t feel like I ran particularly fast, but I cracked the top 100 and was the top finishing gringo in the field, so I’ll count that as a win. The group I ran with made it back to San Jose at about midnight. It was a long, exhausting day, but it was awesome to see a new part of the country while not having to spend the night in a hotel. During the trip, the team also gifted me a new race singlet and gave me a round of applause on the bus for my performance. That was a cool moment for me to feel included as I’m someone who’s not originally from their community.