Cullen Moran in Costa Rica: Pura Vida, Mae

This summer I was in Costa Rica as a part of the program run by Amigos de las Américas, which is an independent and nonprofit organization that trains and sends volunteers to live with local families in Central America and carry out projects in community development, health, and youth leadership.

My six weeks in Costa Rica began with a three day orientation at EARTH University outside of Guápiles. Most of the Orientation consisted of instructions and training about carrying out the community development project. After orientation my partner and I got to community by bus. The first night with my host family was nerveracking at first and my

Making Tamales for a fundraiser:

spanish was a bit rusty, but after the first week I was speaking easily and I had already developed good relationships with my family and a few of the other youths of the community. The community itself had only around 8O inhabitants in about 20 small, very rustic houses, a small pulperia that sold everything from basic food needs to cheap sunglasses, a tiny, windowless catholic church, and a two-room elementary school that had one teacher, 20 students, and no glass in the windows. The main road through the community was gravel and the only other road was not navigable because it had eroded

so much.

A few of the kids from the camps:

Starting on the garden:

Our project supervisor came once a week and along with her and the teacher of the school we

decided that the community project would center around planting a garden for the school for the childrens' lunches. While we were gathering materials, fundraising, and planning out the project, we taught daily camps to the 5-13 year old children of the school about environmental and health issues. We also played tons of futbol (that's soccer for us gringos).

Overall, this experience was amazing. I now have a second family as well as two close friends in Costa Rica and I am positive that whenever

return I will be welcome.

Rodolfo, Estephan, and I hanging out: