Helping our community

Today after school Henry was excited to tell us that a bunch of Toms shoes arrived, and kids were able take a pair home.  He recalled hearing about Toms’ One for One program when he and Madeleine got their Toms shoes last summer.  It is great to see the result of this program first hand, and great for our kids to see it too.  It is also another reminder to us that while we have a very nice life here in Costa Rica, some of our Tico neighbors are not so well off.  Everyone seems to get by, in spite of the low wages we hear about and the US food prices that we see in the grocery stores and restaurants here.

There are two families we have met, both with kids in Sullivan’s kindergarten class, who don’t have enough money or food to eat.  In both cases, the father is not able to work due to injury, and the mother is not having much luck finding work.  One family we have helped a bit by buying them food, giving them some money and paying the mom to help us clean our house once and teaching us some Costa Rican cooking another time.  We have tried to spread the word that she is looking for work, but I don’t think much has materialized yet.  We plan to buy some food to donate to the other family this week as well.  The mom is pregnant and has been quite sick.  Not having enough food to eat is certainly not helping the situation.

Nik is on the parent committee for Sullivan’s kindergarten class, and has been involved a bit in planning some of the fund raisers they have done. The current need is for money to buy paint for the outside of the classroom that is in bad shape.  The wonderful kindergarten teacher, Marilyn, also wants to have a festive mural added to the front of the classroom building.  She planned a paint fund collection evening for Friday at two of the gringo-frequented restaurants in town, but it had to be cancelled due to heavy rain.  

Inspired by the arrival of the Toms today, I finally got my act together to put out a donation request for the kindergarten paint fund on the Lake Arenal Facebook page, that I affectionately refer to as the Gringo FB page.  We’ll see what comes of it.

We are feeling a bit of guilt, as we were paying a fairly hefty tuition for Sullivan’s Montessori school in Portland before we came to Costa Rica, as well as making large donations to the foundation for Madeleine and Henry’s (public) school.  Here all we are asked to pay is a monthly fee to cover the free daily lunch and copies. This totals no more than $10 a month for all 3 of our kids!  Obviously we can and need to give more.  We are trying to live frugally and also don’t want to come across as the rich gringos (though I doubt that anyone would mind).  So we are thinking about how we can help and are asking some folks at the school what they need.  Since we are going to the US for a visit soon, it will be the perfect time to bring back supplies.

Nik and I attended a school-wide meeting held by the fast-talking school director last week.  The purpose was to organize a parent committee for the whole school, a PTA type thing to help deal with the school’s issues and problems.  The meeting was not very well publicized and thus not very well attended.  As is typical in school meetings here, I could not understand much of what was said.  Sully’s teacher was sitting near us, and at one point she asked the director to explain in more detail (for our benefit) what he was proposing: a committee with president, VP, etc.  He came over to where Nik and I were sitting and said something directed at me that I did not understand.  Then Sully’s teacher said something, and voila, I was the first one signed up for the new committee.  Whoosh!  

Now, I was a pretty dedicated volunteer at our kids’ schools in Portland and helped to raise some significant funds... but that was all in English!  The thought of trying to help raise money and get things done with my feeble Spanish seems ridiculous.  I know it is a great opportunity though, and I will give it a try.  It would be amazing to be able to help improve things for our adopted community.  For now, I am off to Google Translate for help with writing an email to el señor director to inquire about the school’s issues and how we might help.