Just shy of completing two months of the 2009 school year, Escuela Camino Claro is in full swing and we are happily welcoming new students. Our goal for 2009 was to increase our student enrollment by 15%; that is, to have about 35 students by the end of the year. I suppose that we might have underestimated our potential because we currently have 47 students and are still expecting more!! This does not include our computer literacy classes, which will start in late April. Now that our bodega (a locked, cement room used to secure valuables), is finished we are able to pilot this class. I am estimating that we will have closer to 60 students in 2009!! We are a little bit worried that we will outgrow our building but I think we can all agree that if our primary concern is too many students, Escuela Camino Claro has a lot to be thankful for.
First, I would like to share one of the many classroom highlights of this past month: an extracurricular activity that we did with our 7th grade Home School class. Since the class was studying the Baroque and Classical Era, we decided to have a Baroque dinner at the school. To start off the night, the students enjoyed an evening game of croquet, fashioned together with a few resourceful hands and some wire clothes hangers, bouncy balls, and hand-made wooden mallets. After a very competitive game, we all dined together and enjoyed the classical sounds of Mozart while we feasted on roasted chicken, rice, spinach, assorted fruits, and wine glasses filled with grape juice. We attempted to discuss the political events of the day but we really just ended up laughing and watching one of our students, Noe, gnaw on chicken bones like a starving hyena. I think we even have some pictures of this breathtaking demonstration. All in all, the dinner was a success as it turns out... learning IS fun!!
Now that all of our classes are in session and on a roll we are beginning to focus on some of the other goals that Haley and I had set for this year. One of our goals will soon be met as we plan to host our first monthly beach clean-up in April. Pavones, like most remote villages, is neglected by the government and therefore lacks basic infrastructure such as a public garbage system. The town does receive private garbage services twice a month, which is relatively expensive, and therefore a large portion of locals do not spend their money on this service but burn their trash instead. (The burning of trash is an entirely different can of worms, however, and we are not yet prepared to tackle a problem that is deeply rooted in poverty and a lack of education.) Our beach clean-up project may not fix the greater root problem but it is a way to educate by example while holding the younger generations accountable to care for and respect their community. This small service project will take place in mid- April after Semana Santa, a holiday week in Costa Rica that brings dozens (no, hundreds!!) of tourists to Pavones to camp and enjoy the beach. During Semana Santa, the main public beach and the Rio Claro River that flows into the ocean become polluted with litter due to the influx of tourists. The trash left behind does not get picked up by a city maintenance crew but instead floats out to sea with the high tide. We hope that we can prevent the trash from meeting the sea and that our students (all 47 of them!) will gain a heightened sense of environmental awareness. With any luck, they will share their knowledge with others.
While I am on the subject of environmental concerns, I would like to briefly inform you about a BIG issue that we are confronted with right here in the Gulfo Dulce. Our local waters are being forever threatened by the implementation of an immense tuna farm in the Gulfo Dulce. Granjas Atuneras S.A. is a company of Venezuelan and Spanish interests, who are looking to place between 10 and 100 cages just outside of the mouth of the Gulfo Dulce. The cages measure 50 meters in diameter and 20 meters in depth and would be positioned a few kilometers off the beach. The tuna would be corralled hundreds of miles out to sea by helicopters, nets, dynamite and speedboats and then dragged back to the Gulfo Dulce. Those who will profit from this project are a few wealthy individuals with a common interest in money and no concern for our local community. Those who will be harmed by the Tuna Farms are local fishermen as they will loose their livelihood, all marine life in the Gulf who will be either caught in the nets and inadvertently killed or slowly murdered by nitrogen byproducts, and local tourists, surfers, and divers as the concentrated amounts of tuna carcasses will attract sharks into the Gulf. The Pavones community is in the process of trying to prevent the Tuna Farm project. In order to begin (key word being "begin") to deny the project, Pavones must raise a minimum of $15,000 in order to finance a referendum. If the community is able to raise the money, it is still uncertain what will actually happen. I am crossing my fingers and thinking positively for now...it would be greatly appreciated if you would do the same. More passionate supporters are encouraged to donate to this cause on our website through Paypal. Any donations for this purpose will go directly to the local fund that will be financing this referendum to stop this terrible event from taking place in our precious gulf.
Though it is not an uplifting note to end this month's newsletter on, I felt it was important to share some of our communities' less idyllic elements with our greatest supporters. Thank you for your positive thoughts and boundless love! We owe our success to all of you, THANK YOU.
- Raphel