Hot dirt brushes along steaming pavement, dogs pant, sweaty children play, the devious sun beats relentlessly down on anything brave enough not to seek shade. I hide out in the relative coolness of the office where the remnants of air conditioning still linger from an earlier meeting. The weeks here in Potrero, Costa Rica seem to have come and gone more quickly than my initial, fleeting hope that it might rain. Mornings swimming in the glassy blue water, sprawled out on the hothot sand, or flying down the road on my bike, afternoons at work in the breezy Kids Club, teaching/helping to teach 4-5 English classes per day to Potrero’s eager children, evenings watching the brilliant, vibrant sunset, and attempting to cook something edible on my gas stove.
My job consists mainly of acting as a classroom aide to our Youth English Teacher, Lauren. Our classes range from Materno–daycare–through sixth grade and each class meets three times per week. I also do private tutoring, volunteer where I can be helpful, and co-teach a high school English class once a week, an interesting position to be in since I was a high schooler myself just eight months ago.
Abriendo Mentes, the organization I am volunteering for this spring for four months, is very well respected in Potrero and in neighboring communities which makes the work very rewarding and makes living here comfortable and really wonderful. Up until recently, the economy of this region of Costa Rica, Guanacaste, was entirely agriculturally based. In the last few decades, the tourism industry has exploded here. With this influx of diversion-seeking-foreigners, many job opportunities have appeared that did not formerly exist here. These jobs, however, are largely unavailable to those who live here unless they are able to receive an education and learn how to speak English. It was previously possible to thrive here with little to no education by working in agriculture, but the arrival of the tourism industry has made this a thing of the past.
This is now one of the most expensive parts of Costa Rica, and an area with incredible poverty. Living here, you see the richest people, tourists and expats, and the poorest people, locals and Nicaraguan immigrants. Land is expensive, food is expensive, transportation is expensive, water and electricity are expensive. Unfortunately, this makes Guanacaste a somewhat difficult place to be a volunteer; I keep myself to a pretty strict budget. Abriendo Mentes provides free, after school English and computer classes to children, and evening classes to adults, with the intent to help bridge the gap between the job opportunities that are now available and the skill/education levels of the people who would most benefit from them. Right now we’re lucky enough to have a lot of kids who are really dedicated and come to every one of their classes ready to learn and have fun, the next months it will be important to be sure attendance stays high and the kids stay engaged. Wish us luck!!! In the meantime, please enjoy these photos of our kids being adorable and Potrero being beautiful 🙂
— Camila O’Brien
