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.
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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
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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.