Hola! In 12 days, myself, my twin sister (Abby), and one of our closest friends, Steph, will be embarking on a 4 week long stay in Costa Rica. Recent grads of Butler University, we all decided that we needed one last hurrah before embarking on the "real world." Well, I think it is a little ironic because, in the end, I hope to be more enlightened about the "real world" than I can experience working in an office all day.
In November of 2009, the three of us decided we wanted to go somewhere, and as thrifty college students, went to Priceline to find the cheapest airfare. Our next step was to find a reputable non-profit volunteer organization that we could go through to find a volunteer placement in Costa Rica. So we found International VolunteerHQ, an organization based out of New Zealand and with a partner organization called Maximo Nivel based in San Jose.
To sum it up: The plan is to stay with a Costa Rican family for three weeks, and to volunteer about 5 hours a day in childcare. This will be in an orphanage, school, homeless shelter - we will soon see! Even though I am traveling to a Central American country with about 4% of the entire world's natural diversity, and volcanoes, beaches, jungles, etc., my hope is to see the heart of the country: the people. It's so easy to travel to a popular destination and never leave the resort, never to see who lives there, what they do, how they live. Never to see the poverty. I'm so excited to see the real world as it is, pure and alive.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm equally excited to see the beaches, jungles, monkeys, etc. The last week of our trip, we will be accompanied by our friend and fellow traveler, Jackie. We plan on traveling the country, hopefully with about 3 destinations. As with all travel, these plans may and will change!
So there's the details. Stay tuned for further updates of our day-to-day living, some photos, and I promise some great stories as well.
