RRHS students experience life in Costa Rica

Ken Johnston

It seems the southern destination that has been drawing this area’s residents this winter has been Costa Rica, but not for leisure time on the beaches.
Earlier this year Kevin Kennedy of Pinewood traveled to that country to do humanitarian work. That trip was followed by a joint Rainy River and Fort Frances High School trip March 10-23, 2004.
Cale Shumaker, gr. 12, and Jay Neilson, gr. 10, along with teacher Lori Armstrong made the journey on behalf of Rainy River High School.
Cale said that his sister, Lisa and his mom, Penny, did the trip a few years ago and he really wanted to go but was still in grade school.
Jay said that he thought the trip would be a great opportunity to visit a different country and experience a different culture. About 7 hours in the air and they departed their plane and began doing just that.
“It was pretty neat to wake up off the plane and have no snow,” said Cale.
It was very hot and very humid there, but Jay said, “You don’t notice it after a few days.”
The group was hosted by the Asociacion Cultural de Intercambie (ACI) who helps coordinate regular trips of groups from Canada.
“There was a Quebec group there in January. Our first job was to finish a sidewalk they started,” said Cale.
Their first two days involved orientation at Esparza. From there they drove four hours to Nicoya near the pacific coast.
Each of the 10 students on the trip were billeted out with local families there. They wanted to experience culture and boy did staying with families do that. “They spoke very limited english and I spoke very little Spanish,” said Jay who often referred to his translation dictionary for help.
Cale said that the culinary cultural experience was not all that good either. “All we ate was beans and rice and I do not even like rice.” He did learn to acquire a palette for rice as that was all there was.
Jay said that he really appreciates the modern conveniences we have after visiting Costa Rica. “There are no windows and doors are left open all the time,” he noted, which became very apparent after his first night there. “I was badly bitten by bugs that night,” after which he used bug spray.
Cale said that the drivers are crazy there as well. “Everyone drives crazy and no one seems worried about it.”
In addition to doing communal work, which also included painting a school, they were given some free time to site see. They visited a pottery village, some waterfalls and a volcano. Unfortunately the day they went to the volcano there was a low ceiling of clouds, preventing them from seeing much.
Both teens said that it was a really good experience and that they would like to go again some time. However they are both glad to be back home appreciating the modern amenities Canadians have.