Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 2019)
ARTS 8 CULTURE 4 Students adventure in Costa Rica STORY AND PHOTOS BY JONATHAN VILLAGOMEZ PHOTO EDITOR After several delayed flights and a layover in Mexico City, CCC students arrived in Liberia, Costa Rica, 33 hours after their initial departure. After finally arriving in Santa Cruz, the students discovered a mural (below) near the town’s center. . N in e ty d e grees in D e c e m b e r is v ery uncom m on here in Oregon, but not so much in th e Guanàcaste province o f Costa Rica where eight Clackam as Com m unity College students had the chance to travel abroad to right before C h ristm as break. Before the trip, they spent nine weeks prepping. During their classroom tim e, the students learned about the Costa Rica education system and LGBTQ rights am ong other things. A s the tim e to leave for the trip neared, students looked forward to the upcom iong cultural experiences as well as the four college credits they would earn by participating. The day to depart had finally arrived but was soon m et w ith a m inor setback: “ We all gathered at the airport three hours early because we were very excited to depart fo rth is journey and th en we had a 24-hour fligh t delay. So, we hung out at thé airport till 2 a.m . W e w aited because they told us the fligh t was just an hour delayed and then at m id n igh t, th ey said actually the flig h t was delayed till the follow ing day at 10 p .m . So, everybody had to call their rides from M olalla, Aurora, Oregon City, to b e picked up to go hom e in the middle o f the n ight. It was pretty disappointing,” said Jacqueline Curry, the class instructor. The n ext day th ey fin a lly boarded and were ready to endure the six-hour fligh t to M exico City, M exico, only to board another three-hour fligh t to land in Liberia, Costa Rica. U p on landing everyone w as excited on ly to be h it w ith on e more th ing. “ The first thought that w ent through m ÿ.m ind w as d efin itely how h ot it w as. It was like; getting hit by a w all o f h ea t,” said M adison Ram sey, a CCC student th at’s doing a dual high school/college enrollm ent. W ith the temperature and hum idity both being in the 90s, the group o f nine jum ped on board their ride only to endure a long, one-hour ride to hom e base with a van that had a broken A C unit. Or so they thought. “ W e were h eading to Sam ara beach. M y feet were so h ot, and I was like there’s no way I can put up w ith this heater/ A C and so I asked Ronnie (the driver) ‘hey Ronnie, does the A C not work?’ and then h e’s like ‘O h it’s because you guys put it on hot. Every tim e you get o ff the car, I have to switch it back Clackamas Print theclackam asprint.com to A C because it’s always on h o t,” explained student Estefania Colazo. They rode in the van that was blasting hot air for more than a week. Just a reminder that it was roughly 90 degrees outside. It ’ s n ot every day th a t you have th e opportunity to travel to a different country, th a t’ s w h y studen t D estin y C h ild d id n ’t th in k twice about going. “ W h en I w as in high school, I wanted to go on a trip to Mexico to build houses, bu t m y fa m ily ended up not letting m e go. W hen I found out about this on the first day o f school, I jum ped on the opportunity. I didn’t even th in k tw ice,” said'Child. C h ild , w ho is a big an im al lover, had a tough time seeing all the stray dogs roaming around the streets. “ Seeing all the stray dogs was d ifficu lt for m e since m y goal in life is to own a rescue. There were dogs that had been hit by cars and hadn’t had any medical attention; This experience showed m e that I have to do som ething for these dogs who can’t d o it for them selves. The w om an who runs Territorio de Zaguates, Land o f th e Strays, started by taking in strays o ff the street to fin d th em new hom es and w hen th ey got to 100, they realized they needed a bigger Space. They moved to her husband’s family’sand now they have abouti,ooo dogs. I hope to go back and visit the Land of the Strays and try andhielp the am azing woman who is changing these street dogs’ life, one dog at a tim e,” said Child. W hile in Costa Rica they had the chance to go and volunteer w ith kids at a daycare called Gotitas de M iel w here they painted educational murals and got to help out with more than 20 kids ages 3 to 6 years old. Their main mural was painted in the courtyard near the entrance o f the daycare center. It was a project that took about one week to complete. They wanted students to be as involved as possible. They put kids handprints on the m ain m ural. “ It was fun to see how excited some o f them got about it,” said Ramsey. The students got to bond with m any of the kids throughout those two weeks. “ I loved th e children and how it didn’t m a tter th a t w e d id n ’t sp eak th e sam e language or that w e were from a different country,” said Child.
