Costa Rica

The past couple of months have been CRAZY! For the holidays, my hubby and I set off to Costa Rica to volunteer to teach english and provide child care to what we were led to believe were needy children in Carpio, Costa Rica. Thinking we were contributing to a good cause, we'd look past and forgive the 7-17 year old boys who tried to steal our watches & cameras, or set off explosives outside. Every few days, a new group of volunteers came through the area thinking they could be supermen and save the world by providing candy, soda, and toys to these kids. (We were even guilty of doing that our first day) Do you know what that leads to? Unproductive, undisciplined, unnecessary parties 3+ times every week, feeding the greedy, wasteful tendencies of not only the children, but the adults of the church /school. Especially after the disaster in Haiti, I regretted wasting my volunteer time for a worthless cause in Costa Rica. I did, however, make the most of it by providing learning supplies and teaching the children that were actually willing to learn. I mostly stayed away from the scary older ones and stuck to the sweet little ones. A handful of them were really pretty sweet :)

The trip wasn't a total loss. We met some of the most interesting and fun friends along the way. Our long weekends were spent exploring the gorgeous beaches, luscious rain forests, and volcanoes. We slept in hammocks, learned how to surf, and went zip-lining 660ft in the air going over 60mph over the rain forests. Costa Rica is a fun tourist destination, but is definitely not any needier for volunteers than any other country. I am going to make sure that my next volunteering mission is truly worthy of my time. Chicago certainly has needs that must be met, so I'll start my search here. And until I find this Chicago volunteering match of mine, I am enjoying every day in this fabulous city!!