20th Anniversary of the Escuela

Yesterday we were invited to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Escuela . . . and the unveiling of another donation from Fundacion Educar - but a little different one this time - an art piece called "Remembranzas de Tuetal Sur".  The story of a remarkable influence on the children of our village is told on the foundation web site.  But it would have to be a much bigger web site to tell the real story and it will be years before the real story plays out in the lives of children who were not held back by being poor.

The Educar Foundation (Maryland, USA)  is the brain child of Jim Locke who decided to help some kids in Costa Rica - today 1000's of kids have been touched by the work of the foundation.

Our small school was built 20 years ago thanks to the vision of a small group of residents who ignored the local school officials who thought the village would never amount to much.  They convinced a local farmer to part with some of his finca for a pittance so the kids of the village could go to a "local primary school".  They scraped a few hundred dollars (in colones of course) to build a school house.  The bathroom would have to wait.

By the time Jim Locke discovered the school it had a few classrooms, two bathrooms and about 250 kids in what most would agree a very poor neighborhood.  Like most everybody in Costa Rica, this didn't mean their kids were hungry but it did mean some parents often had little work and there wasn't a computer or a book to be seen in the neighborhood.

There was however something interesting going on at the school . . . situated between the Caja clinic (EBAIS as it is known in every village of Costa Rica) and the church.  3km or a mile or so down the road some of the kids were coming out of the bad barrio (known as the Infernillo by all around it) and showing up at school every morning in uniform.  There was and is a high rate of teen pregnancy and some families with big problems unable to provide supplies for their kids or an evening meal.  The school, Jim observed, despite the poor neighborhood and some questionable parents from the Infernillo was well disciplined.  The neighborhood was quite rural and yet somehow the school had managed to snag a full time psychologist (unheard of in rural schools) to help the troubled kids.  The neighborhood was known for youth problems and yet the kids in the school were polite and very well disciplined.  The neighborhood was dusty and unkempt but the school was spotless.
Today, the school is still spotless and orderly . . . there are over 350 kids, more bathrooms, a covered sports/assembly area, twice as many classrooms, a library well stocked with books, a computer room with 26 PC's and a trainer to maintain them and teach the kids.  Much of this came through the foundation and organized into a teaching tool by another remarkable individual . . . the director, Senor Humberto Soto.  Mr Soto leads an excellent team of teachers and assistants finding new ways every day to manage meager resources (such as a government allowance of 30 cents for lunch) into appetizing meals for the body and the brain.
The 20th Anniversary of the school had some unusual guests of honor - the business charge d'affaires, Peter Brennan, from the US Embassy who spoke about the strong connection between the US and Costa Rica.  Also invited was the artist who designed the statue, Ruth Moreno who engaged us with her tale of how the village is intertwined in her art piece.
The village is named after the Tuete bush a rather weedy looking thing that is constantly under threat from neighborhood gardeners who mistake it for the weedy thing it looks like.  Two Tuetes are known to be in protected captivity (as a result of these continued assaults on the village mascot) - one at the front of the school and the other in the Pura Vida gardens.  Maybe the school officials who originally ignored the pleas for a new school 20 years ago knew something about Tuetes?
The next step in the evolution of the village may be the addition of a sports field and perhaps a small road around it to create a village center (and perhaps slow down traffic at the school).  There is the beginnings of a plan . . . something that has made no progress in 10 years . . . and has no funding.  The village and the school may bring this forward?  A first step at "centering" the idea may have come at this 20th anniversary event - the arrival of the "Remembranzas" below (with "Mr Jim" as the staff and kids know him being interviewed at the ceremony):

On this day of the 20th anniversary there were a number of visitors who were surprised by what they found at this little primary school in a so called "poor village".  Our guests who come visit the school most weeks of the year bringing a book or maybe a bag of books for the library are also surprised by what they find.  Loud and clear the message goes out around the world that Costa Rica has achieved one of the highest literacy rates and then I explain . . . "they did it without books" (another tale on this subject is here: "what is literacy in Costa Rica?")

Well they are doing it without books in most schools here through the creativity of the teachers, the drive of some good directors, a pretty decent infrastructure and in a few cases the additional support of Fundacion Educar.  As Jim Locke puts it when asked "Why Costa Rica?"

He replies simply, "Costa Rica will do something with my investment."

You'll be welcomed too on your next visit.

Escuela Tales . . . on video

This video shows just a little of one of the local schools, Escuela Tuetal Sur - the director is Humberto Soto, the counselor is Juan Vargas and the school this month celebrates its 20th anniversary. Of particular note is that about half of this school was built thanks to the generous support of Fundacion Educar, a US based foundation managed locally in Alajuela. Thanks to Mark and Amy, the videographers from Karmalized Pictures, for donating this video for the school . . . waytogo Amy and Mark, muchas gracias!

Book donations have helped and if you want to help the kids in some way we hope you will consider bringing one book or 10 books if you are visiting Costa Rica. The best books are in Spanish for younger kids but if you have atlases, dictionaries, nature books or reference works in English they work well too. Things for pre-school or kindergarten kids are really helpful as they have nothing much at all.

Here are a few ways you can do this.

If you are visiting Costa Rica and passing through the main International Airport in Alajuela, stop by the taxi booth at the arrivals exit of the airport. Give the books you bring in a box or bag labeled "Pura Vida Hotel/Tuetal Phone:2430-2929 for Escuela Tuetal Sur" tell the booth that the "hotel pays" and they will taxi the box to the hotel and we will take them to the school that week.

If you are visiting and staying at the Pura Vida Hotel (just up the road from the Escuela Tuetal Sur) leave the books with the hotel on your visit. If you like you can schedule a visit at the school (350 kids) and the staff and children would love to show you around.

If you have computer donations (in particular, any unused older Windoze laptops) or computer supplies they will be donated to the Escuela Poasito (which was destroyed in the
January 2009 6.2 earthquake and has now been rebuilt). This school (250 kids) is not far from Poas Volcano and makes a great visit when you are at Poas, but do let us schedule it for you so as not to interrupt the kids too much.

This pic is from the recent inauguration of the new school (the other school up at Poasito near Poas Volcano . . . Randal Luna, the school counselor is speaking and seated behind the quizzical stars of the moment are Minster Garnier, the head of education and Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica.  to the right of the President but just off camera is the directora and driver of the school, Sonia Barrantes (in the photo below thanking the farmer who donated the land for the new school).

If you are visiting ANYWHERE else in Costa Rica, contact your hotel and ask them if you can help with something for their closest public escuela (primary school) or colegio (high school).

Costa Rican Adventues . . . Literacy, schools and such

A teacher asks:
We'd like to bring some surplus materials with us on our trip.  What do you need?

This is something we posted on TripAdvisor this month.

Schools in Costa Rica work differently than what you may have experienced. One aspect we (and our guests) work with is the severe shortage of books - the esential unaffordability of a $15 text book in an economy that is supported by $2 and $3 an hour wages.

There are many reasons for the shortage of books and the lack of a reading habit that is an indirect spin off of the culture. Yet this is a culture that is more committed to their children than most. And a culture that is proud of it's history of pacifism, healthcare and literacy. How is it possible to have one of the highest literacy rates on the planet (around 97%) and almost no libraries and few books? But how do YOU define literacy?

The good news is that Costa Rica is currently ranked #1 in a 2009 survey of primary school enrollment.

But what has that got to do with literacy? Here it essentially means the child can "read and write". But when mandatory schooling stops at age 15 with a very low graduation rate and no books what is the likelihood that the child will later bump into Kafka or Marquez or understand what a 48% interest rate really means on that first refrigerator they buy?

How will you grasp the significance of the precedents for the Geneva convention or even the history of evolution.

Kids can and DO graduate from school life with very little access to books. They are just too expensive and take a beating in the wet and creature filled neo-tropics. For the last few years we have had good success cajoling our guests to bring some books for the kids along with their luggage.

These books have been donated to Escuela Tuetal Sur which is located in a small modest rural community just north of Alajuela. There is more info here: Escuela Tuetal Sur

We also lately have been working donations for the Escuela Poasito (destroyed in the Jan 8th 2009 earthquake epicentered near the village on the slopes of Poas volcano). Our focus at Poasito school is to find old laptops people no longer need and get a computer lab started as it is so much harder to find the correct books.

These 2 schools are "almost" typical public primary schools - kindergarten through age 12. Tuetal Sur school has 350 children this year and Poasito has 250. If we get books more suitable for older kids, they will go to Colegio Tuetal Norte - the closest high school about 1km from the hotel. The colegio has 510 children this year and a library with less than 300 old tattered books last time I counted.

The education and literacy issue is a complex one but here are a few local factoids. In Costa Rica, the government (MEP - Ministry of Education) provides the teachers but the neighborhood must find ways to house them (build classrooms, assembly areas, toilets and the like).

Most schools do not have libraries and there is no funding for such. The children are fed their main meal of the day for the equivalent of 25 cents (US). The schools have very few supplies (by comparison to what you may be used to) and in many poor rural neighborhoods the parents are unable to afford to help. Kids drop out of "colegio (high school)" early or do not graduate in part due to the inability to afford books and uniforms or to retain the required curriculum.

Thanks to the efforts of the school staff and the help of some of the gringo visitors a library is now an active part of school life at Escuela Tuetal Sur. Poasito has a couple of laptops and computer supplies and luckily a local high speed internet connection but as yet no internet access.

Both schools are "model schools" in many ways but most of all through their management. The directors of both schools (Snr Soto in Tuetal Sur and Snra Barrantes in Poasito) have a tremendous commitment to education, are leaders in their villages and are held up as models for schools for many miles around. They make a very interesting visit for anyone interested in education.

To date our guests have donated many books as well as a large amount of school supplies. Contact the hotel for a list of the things that are needed. You'd be very welcome to deliver them yourselves to either school. Escuela Tuetal Sur is 1km from the hotel gates and Escuela Poasito is on the slopes of Poas Volcano on your way back from visiting the volcano park. We'd be happy to introduce you to either. Thanks again for visiting and taking time with the kids - the future stewards of the national parks and reserves you'll be visiting this trip.