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Costa Rican’s can benefit from foreigners in many ways. It is up to each of us to be a part of our community in a positive way.
Culturally, Costa Ricans have split up the farm amongst the male children, the girls were forced to go find a husband. The farm has now been split up so many times that the pie can not again be split, handed down, and support those families. What is a parent to do? Many are looking for the foreign dollar to buy them out. The foreigner is not forcing them out, the Costa Rican parents were looking for light at the end of the tunnel when the foreigner arrived and they will receive far more money than had the foreigner not come.
Other benefits are the knowledge that foreigners bring with them and should the Tico want to learn English, job skills, a trade, or self-employment skills from you, he or she now has an opportunity to earn more money.
Remember that the best Foreign Aid we can bring to Costa Rica is our knowledge. We also bring more job opportunities; many jobs allow the employee to earn a living now, and learn skills he never had available to him in his life.
Support your local school with a donation of time and money. Outfit children for school or provide pencils, notebooks and shoes to those who have no money. Provide bus fare for children in need. The teacher knows who these children are, just ask her how you can help, who needs what? Teach reading and math, my rural schools have failed to teach these skills to the children. 6th and 7th graders can barely read, have no comprehension and can not add the most basic math problem. They can not look up words in the dictionary, because they do not know the alphabet. They can not use the phone book, because if you do not know how to use the dictionary, you can not use a phone book for the same reason. If you taught dictionary and phone book you would improve the lives of these children.
It is our responsibility to improve the lives of our neighbors in meaningful ways no matter where we live. What skills do you have to share? Volunteer, mentor, or donate your money to others who are working with few resources. There are many really good NGO’s here who do wonderful work. We help support our local school in Esperanza, we also donate food, money and time to the Voz Que Clama Mission in Tuis de Turrialba. They help the rural poor and Cabecar Indigenous (see past articles in We Love Costa Rica) as well as supporting the local schools to teach the rural and Indigenous children. 100% of your donation goes to helping these poor people into sustainability. The Mission directors take no salary.
Much of what happens in Costa Rica or anywhere else, is beyond our control. But you could be the blessing that helps change the course of some of these children’s lives in an extraordinary way. You, can give them a chance and opportunity.
Ginnee
I would like for you to interview the Voz Que Clama Mission in Tuis de Turrialba. These are two amazing young Costa Ricans who take in the handicapped indigenous that are put out to die. You can ask them quwstions about the state of education on the Cabecar reservation. They make monthly 5 hour walks to the reservation to work with the children and assess their needs. Ask them about education for the children of Tuis.
These young men, Hector and Daniel are experts in their field. Lets hear how it really is from Tico’s. When I read stories written about Costa Rican education (Love it or leave it) in todays issue written by a Gringo tourist, I am reading what he has copied from brochures.
This is not the reality of the mjority of Costa Rican education and certainly not rural Costa Rica’s education. I will bet you he has not even been to a classroom. Go visit the mission, ask them about the level of education and literacy for Costa Ricans. What is the level for the Indigenous?
Shocking! I don’t think we are doing the Costa Rican people any favors by wearing rose colored glasses regarding their high level of education and literacy. It is simply not true.
The following is my letter to the author of today’s article.
The propaganda regarding education in Costa Rica is not accurate. What does high standard of literacy really mean and what does it mean to you or to me. Here is what I know to be true, I live in rural Costa Rica, South of Turrialba, and in our community we offer free reading lessons, and educational assistance.
Many rural schools have teachers who are not highly educated, may not in fact be a teacher, they may be someone’s cousin and that is their only qualification.
There are no books, not one, in the classroom.
The children have never read a story, nor been read to.
They neither have a dictionary nor do they know how to look up a word. Example, doctor, you start on page one of the dictionary and flip through every page until you find the word. They have no idea to start at d, do, doc, doct, docto, doctor. No idea.
This also means that they can not use a telephone book. I gave the telephone book to a 15 year old, in high school so that he could find a dentist and make an appointment to have his abscessed tooth fixed. Open the book to page one, and he flipped every page, never finding D for dentist. Who knew?
So I ask you? What does literacy mean, and what does it mean to you? We teach everyday English, simple phrase the people can use. How to use a dictionary in Spanish, and how to use a telephone book in Spanish. Simple but important, one little step forward in being literate. When 15 year olds are reading in Spanish, and they can not read the words that are in their Spanish newspaper, something is very wrong. They are, in my opinion not literate. It is time to take off the rose colored glasses.
Most of our donated reading material consists of children’s books in English. We have only a few Spanish books that have been donated by a publisher and they are mostly too complex for our students of all ages including the adults. So we learn to read in English through children’s books or in Spanish using the newspaper, dictionary, and yellow page phone books. Being able to sign your name and pick out a few words is not being literate. Many gringos say that Costa Ricans do not like to read. No, that is not it. They can’t enjoy a book, because they have never had one. They don’t know the words, and therefore are not literate.
If you would like to help the children of Costa Rica, let’s tell the truth about the educational system here. For the most part, rural education sucks big time. And if you want to know about Indigenous education I would be more than happy to share the truth. A 2 day visit to the reservation by a “teacher” is not an education. And what are his qualifications? Good question. The two that I have met, who leave their car at our farm, I don’t think they are educated. These “teachers” are poverty struck, in fact they do machete work for us. Are they literate, I don’t know, what does that mean?
We provide uniforms, pencils, paper, art supplies and books for the rural poor and Indigenous in our area. You can read more on my blog http://www.costaricamountain.blogspot.com
I have come to repeatedly ask the question, what does that mean? What does that mean to them? What does that mean to you? And what does that mean to me? Dig a lot deeper, because what you are told, and what the reality is, is not even close. I have provided two links at the end of this email that will verify what I have told you. There is far more information for you, but you know how to do research and why take my slanted view of the rural education I know and deal with.
The following is our wish list should you desire to help. And I will thank you now for your efforts. The need is real. A mind is a terrible thing to waste and if we want to end the poverty cycle, education is the only way.
Wish list,
Used lap top computers
chalk
pencils
colored pencils
scissors
pens
crayons
art paper
art supplies
craft paper
book bags
finger paints
powder craft paint
face paint
sweat shirts from the thrift store on 1/2 price day, sizes small and medium and children sizes These are small frame people. It is cold in the mountains.
good practical clothing, jeans, t-shirts, (small and medium sizes and children’s sizes)
Baby clothes
Cloth diapers
gathered skirts for girls (they like skirts)
sneakers, children’s sneakers, all sizes for children
good quality new socks
drum sticks ($2.00 a pair on the internet) develops the brain and is a tool for teaching counting and math
anything educational
flash cards
simple Spanish / English dictionaries
blow up beach ball globes of the world (they have never seen the world round, only flat)
Sincerely,
Ginnee
Ginnee y Felipe Hancock
Finca Quijote de Esperanza, SA
Costa Rica
http://www.costaricamountain.blogspot.comI have sent 3 shipments. Read my blog, http://costaricamountain.blogspot.com/ start at bottom and work your way up, I give detailed instructions on how to have success when moving. My success, was near perfect. Crowley was the ship I used and they made their mistakes every time, but they are who ships out of Fort Lauderdale. I had reservations, everything was there, the paperwork was right, and the containers, 3 different times, did not get on until the next ship. Why? I think they over book and I am a person not a regular shipper. My Costa Rica broker was perfect every time. If your stuff gets in, unopened, and delivered to your door, that is perfection. I have done it 3 times now. If you need more detailed info contact me off of the forum. It was a learning curve, I spent 2 years doing my research, and I got it right. I thought perhaps the first one was just luck, we were holding our breath. Unloading it would have been a nightmare, we spent 9 months packing 30,000 pounds of tools, we could not unload it. I have since sent 2 more shipments. Perfect.
Ginnee y Felipe Hancock
areca@ix.netcom.com
Finca Quijote de Esperanza, SA
Costa Rica
http://costaricamountain.blogspot.com/There are other possible options that could work for you and did for us. We bought our 28′ Great Dane container with wheels, wired the interior for lights, sound, fan, and packed it over 9 months time utilizing evry square inch of space. The container was shipped to Limon, it was not unpacked, and it was delivered from Limon directly to our home South of Turrialba. I also shipped a 40′ container that we did not own, it never went to San Jose and was brought directly to our home to be unloaded.
You do not want your stuff going to San Jose and it does not have to go to San Jose.
The beauty of owning your container is that you now have a very secure bodega. You can unload it at your pace, nothing gets stolen.
The unit is in high demand here and you can sell it for a profit. The trucker who delivered it wanted to buy it, we have had many offers from various truck related people, but it is too valuable to us as a bodega.
Power in Costa Rica is produced by hydro-electric power plants. We are in a drought. My farm in Esperanza de Turrialba gets about 300 inches of rain a year. We have had almost none in 5 months. The reservoir that feeds our power plant, in Atirro de Turrialba, behind Casa Turire is nothing more than a sand bar at the moment with no water. It has dried up.
So if you can figure out how to flow the sand through the turbines instead of using water, and still produce electricity, I am sure the government would love to hear your words of wisdom.
Ginnee
