This trip has continued to amaze me. I knew this trip was going to be a life changing experience, but I never knew I would grow as much as I have in the last few days. The experiences I have made here will undoubtedly stay close to me for the rest of my life. Working in La Carpio was an extremely gratifying experience. The people living there were so happy despite their misfortunes. I have never met a more dedicated group of people in my life. Our group did a lot of good for the community; our help will affect them for years to come. What amazed me the most about La Carpio was the appreciation of the people there. At the end, they managed to have a cake and piñata for us, and we also received bible verses from them. Despite having hardly anything, they were still willing to show their appreciation to us. There are people who have everything that would not have been that generous.
The language barrier was not even as big of an issue as I thought it was going to be. I do speak a little Spanish, but I am by no means fluent. I have a really hard time understanding what people are saying when they are speaking very quickly. Costa Rica is actually considered one of the worst places to try to learn Spanish as a beginner because of the amount of slang they use when they speak. Even with this, I still managed to pick up a lot of Spanish. I loved talking to the locals, especially the kids (probably because they were more on my level). Despite not speaking the same language, we could all still communicate with each other fine. I am now determined to become fluent in Spanish. It is going to take a while, but this trip has stressed the importance of learning a different language to me. Also, today I received a mask from the mask maker we visited. It was such an honor to receive something that this man has dedicated his life to. Tomorrow we head out for the rain forest. Hopefully the second half of this trip will be just as great as the first half.
No comments:
Post a Comment