It was a pleasure to see their smiling faces every morning and hearing their excited voices yelling 'Teacher! Teacher!… 
Program Volunteer Costa Rica
Project: Volunteer in the Daycare Center in Costa Rica
I arrived in San Jose a day early and spent the night in a hotel. The following day Meaw and Santiago picked me up at the hotel. We went to pick up another volunteer then proceeded to San Ramon.
Meaw and Santiago were very friendly and welcoming. Erin, my roommate and I arrived at our host mother's home. One of the first things that she said to us was 'mi casa es su casa'. Throughout my stay in San Ramon my host mother was more than hospitable. She helped us organize trips, insisted on washing our dishes and doing our laundry, con mucho gusto. She introduced us to friends, family and took us to karaoke. On top of all that she was a fantastic cook!
I loved working with the kids. They are very warm and kind hearted.
I arrived under the impression that I would be working in an orphange. Unfortunately, that did not work out. Alternatively, I was placed in a pre-school. Two days a week I worked with the english teacher.She was extremely kind and very appreciative of the extra help and knowledge. I loved working with the kids. They are very warm and kind hearted. It was a pleasure to see their smiling faces every morning and hearing their excited voices yelling 'Teacher! Teacher!'. As the weeks passed it was great to see the students become more comfortable using English. It was a great feeling when a student ran up to ask '¿Qué color es?' or to proudly show off how high they could count in english. The days I did not work with the english teacher, I played with the students and interacted with them in english and spanish.
For several weeks I taught english classes for adults at night. They were very eager to learn and I looked forward to going every night.
On weekends I took trips with other volunteers. We went to La Fortuna, Samara, Monte Verde and Jaco. We went canonyeering, ziplining, saw volcano arenal erupt and went to the beach. Everywhere we went we were greeted with warm smiles and many questions.
Costa Rica had a lot of firsts for me. There were ups and downs but if I did it again, I wouldn't change a thing.
Heather Auld
