Day 7

A Day at Chilamate
The torrential rains began at 4:30 am and finished just after lunch – total accumulation was approximately 55 millimeters – and this is a regular occurrence here during the rainy season. Today was our Teacher’s Summit where we met with local teachers to discuss the various issues facing Sarapiqui families. We soon realized that administrative structures were often a hindrance to teachers as they attempted to meet the needs of core curriculum. It was refreshing to hear that a new curriculum has been developed with an emphasis on civic education, arts, culture and drama. The main challenge of Costa Rican teachers was three-fold: lack of resources, lack of family commitment to education and levels of administration which are slow to adapt to the changing educational landscape. The discussion followed through lunch before we were introduced to the RAFT exercise – an activity that uses recyclable material learning kits to further support learning in the classroom. Tosh’s musical serenade with an instrument he invented from his learning kit produced sounds that had migrating wild boars turning back to greet him. Jamie had Christmas lights dancing with her conductivity kit as everyone enjoyed their moment of creative ingenuity. We finished the day with the Business Challenge – 4 highly competitive groups pitted against each other to develop the best business model for an enduring relationship with our local community. In the end, the local community coffee collective won out. Beginning this fall a group of students will be invited to join this initiative to sell local grown Costa Rican coffee here in Canada. Through this relationship Appleby students will then have the opportunity to send our profits back to the community for local projects. The hope is that local leaders will be able to come to Appleby and experience what we do at school and then perhaps have some of our students visit Sarapiqui – we hope that this will be a truly enduring relationship. Our day finished with a community fiesta with all of our home stay families at Olga’s. The feast was interspersed with spontaneous dance offs - Panama Don was “Dancing with the Stars,” Sara was busting a few dance hall moves and Pedro (Shifty) put on moves never seen in the millennia of dance - his back stayed strong to the test. An incredible send off from our home stay families! Today’s quote of the day comes from the Don: “I cry at Hallmark commercials.” Next up, our trip to Earth University tomorrow.