Costa+RIca+School+Visit

I was lucky enough to spend my Thanksgiving with some wonderful Tico students at the Colegio Tecnico Profesional de Guacimo.I spent much of my time talking with the students in Spanish because many of them did not speak English. The other part of my time was spent translating Spanish for the American teachers who did not speak Spanish and the Tican teachers who did not speak English.It is difficult to translate because I hate to be rude and interrupt the speaker in order to tell the listener what is being said. The school we visited was a middle school and high school put together.The students who attend the school come from a lower socioeconomic background and the facilities and technology they had were extremely limited. The librarian would not even let the students get the books themselves because they had so few of them,if they wanted a book she would get it for them. I saw no computers,photocopy machines,projectors,laptops,overheads or even TVs! It made me extremely grateful for all of the wonderful technology,supplies and equipment we have at Cole.Students in Costa Rica wear the same uniform throughout the country. If they attend a public school, they wear a light blue shirt and dark pants. The day we visited it was the day before their vacation. Costa Rican students have their break from early December to February.The students behaved like our students do before a break they were excited and happy and eager to let their vcation begin! I even got to teach a little mini lesson in the English class. I taught basic introductions and greetings, basically what I do every day but in reverse.,English instead of Spanish. During the English class two students got up and danced for us,lets just say they were not inhibited at all. They were very good dancers but I could not imagine ANY of my Cole students getting up in front of their teachers to dance like that. It was a good lesson in cultural differences. The students were very talented, the sang,danced, acted out a skit for us, showed us skateboard tricks and the most amazing thing was they even had a rodeo! Instead of a physical education class they all went out to a circled off area in a field behind their school where they had to catch a cow and tie it's feet together ,basically they had to hog tie it! The girls had to do this as well as the boys. The day we visited the school it was raining very hard.The ring was a mud pit. Needless to say they were extremely muddy when they were finished! I definitely wore the wrong outfit,heels were not the appropriate footwear for a school visit to an agricultural high school in Costa Rica during the rainy season!