District students travel to Costa Rica to "Come Alive"

By Sarah Pruys
Summer reporter, FF Times

After recently returning home from the University of Manitoba, Sarah Pruys of Fort Frances and Mitch Haw of Stratton, headed to Costa Rica, with a group of people for a volunteer trip through the ‘Come Alive’ program—the culminating event following months of volunteering in Winnipeg.
The small group began programming at the Madison Memorial Lodge, a program of Siloam Mission, in the fall. The Madison is a residence-like building with 87 rooms, allowing homeless people to transition into self-sufficient lifestyles.
Following exams and the U of M generously paying for most of the trip, six students and one Residence Life co-ordinator boarded a plane to meet up with students from the University of Costa Rica and start projects in their home country.
“The first thing I noticed about this Central American country was the heat—and the lack of air conditioning. I have learned to appreciate being cold and have learned to appreciate sunscreen, among many other things,” said Pruys.
Mitchell Haw of Stratton, a second-year engineering student, also was part of the trip. “After arriving in Costa Rica, we travelled by bus to Bahai de Los Pirates, Guanacaste,” he noted.
“This five-hour drive was long, but we taught the 11 Costa Ricans [or ‘Ticos’] tongue-twisters to pass the time and before we knew it, we were ready to start saving sea turtles.
“Upon arriving, we were split into three teams, and each team was assigned tasks to complete each day by the project co-ordinators, Billy and Laura [biologists],” Haw continued.
Tasks included checking the temperature of turtle eggs buried in the sand at 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., serving meals, cleaning equipment, collecting garbage on the beach, and nest exhumation (digging out hatched nests and counting shells, dead turtles, and helping live turtles reach the ocean).
All of these activities were completed during the daytime.
“Then from 8 p.m. to around 1 a.m. every night, our entire group would go out to patrol three beaches for turtles,” Haw said.
“These patrols were both very exciting and really boring,” he admitted. “If we saw a turtle; epic.
“If we didn’t see anything. . . .”
On the patrol, the group helped to keep the beach free of crazy tourists (and poachers), helped Billy measure turtles and check ID tags, and transplanted and marked nests.
“We also had to do this in the darkness, and only use red light when necessary,” Haw explained.
“The baby turtles use the light of the ocean to navigate to the water, so they will migrate toward your flashlight if it’s on.
On two separate occasions, Haw said they were sitting in the darkness on the beach when a herd of baby turtles decided to make their debut.
This turtle transition was startling, to say the least. To be sitting in the dark, and suddenly have baby sea turtles scurrying over and around you on their journey to the ocean, is unforgettable.
Our group had to freeze and, under the glow of red lights, slowly move over a few metres and settle down on a different patch of sand to give the turtles a clear path to the ocean.
After completing five days at the turtle conservation project at Nombre de Jesus, Haw said the group then migrated to Playa Hermosa.
There, they met a new group of students from the UCR, seeing as the first group had to return to school to write tests and papers.
“This time, we were not staying in a house in an area so remote it was an hour away from the nearest hospital, but in a trailer right on the beach close to a grocery store,” Haw noted.
In the first house, said Haw, “the staple meal was fried rice, pinto beans, and sometimes fried plantain or potato things.”
“I don’t really know what the things are, they are seasoned the same and have a potato’s texture, so use your imagination.”
“Sometimes this was our meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometimes all I wanted was a bowl of Cheerios with cold milk. But at least sometimes, we got to try fresh papaya, green mangoes, and other fruit,” said Pruys.
But a new place to stay also meant a new cook, which was wonderful as many of our conversations had turned to the food we missed back home.
“Our cook, Celia, had Italian roots and cooked us some amazing meals,” said Haw. “Lasagne and meatballs are highly-prized in a land of rice and pinto beans.
“Anyhow, while we are staying in this location, [we were] volunteering at a rural elementary school called Escuela Rodeito,” he noted.
“It’s a school of about 30 kids, including the pre-schoolers.
“We painted them a mural, cleaned the exterior of the school, and played games with them and performed a play,” Haw said.
“The kids are so cute, it’s unreal.
“Although I [couldn’t] have a conversation with them, we communicated with smiles and laughter, and ‘hola,’ of course.”
Haw said one of his favourite memories is when he made a hat for a five-year-old with balloons. “She was so excited and I felt like a superhero.”
Pruys returned home and to a job as Summer Reporter at the Fort Frances Times last week. However, Haw and his friend, Shane Bodie, will be staying an additional three weeks to backpack around the beautiful country as the dry season ends and the rain begins.
“I’m pumped,” he enthused.
Looking back on his trip so far, Haw said, “Our travel experience was eye-opening to both the similarities and differences between Canada and Costa Rica. Our student group was exposed to cultural differences ranging from the staple diet of beans and rice to immersion in the Spanish language. The Ticos were very welcoming and have a pride for their country, which they are happy to share with others,” added Haw. “I think Canadians are similar in this way, in that we are proud of our country and want others to enjoy Canada as we do.
“The volunteer experience gave us an opportunity to give back to Cost Rica and have a more genuine travel experience compared to simply visiting a resort,” he stressed.
Haw is blogging about his trip at theshitmitchdoes.tumblr.com