By: Scott Pralinsky

Highlight: El Yaz Elementary
July 29, 2007

The El Yaz Elementary School is one of the schools we work with as part of our La Flor project. Because we didn’t have enough volunteers this week, Isaac, the Director of our Central Valley projects, went to the 4th grade to teach so we wouldn’t miss any classes. While there, he asked them to do an art project explaining to future volunteers why they wanted to learn English.

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Are We Ethical?
July 27, 2007

Open letter to Rob Meyer, Go Budget Travel.com:
Dear Mr. Meyer:
It was very interesting this morning waking up and reading your article questioning the business ethics of organizations such as ours and to hear you suggest the money our clients pay don’t to our communities. At first I laughed, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to respond to you…

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Manuel Antonio Video
July 22, 2007

Manuel Antonio is one of my favorite spots in Costa Rica. I love how the jungle comes right down to the ocean.The Manuel Antonio National Park is the 2nd most visited park in Costa Rica after Monteverde. But even though it’s a popular tourist destination, it’s managed to keep much of its charm.

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La Flor Garden Project
July 21, 2007

The weather has been beautiful lately and we currently have 4 volunteers working in La Flor. In addition to teaching English at the schools and to adults at night, all of them have been pitching in to help bring our garden back to life.

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Hone Creek Roof Project
July 21, 2007

The Hone Creek Elementary School was our first project location way back when. So we have a soft spot in our hearts for this place. When they told us they needed a new roof (among many more urgent needs), we got to work on raising some awareness and money to help them out.

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Beach Clean-up Report
July 20, 2007

Every Wednesday, all the volunteers in the Puerto Viejo area gather at 9:30am for our weekly beach cleaning. It’s one of my favorite activities, not only because it helps the environment and maintains clean & safe areas, but also because it brings all our volunteers together.

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Mystery Creature
July 20, 2007

We recently had a family here volunteering with us: Jamie and her 2 children, Maya and Gabe. Volunteering as a family is a wonderful experience. And the children in Costa Rica love to meet kids from around the world.
While the Malik’s were here, Gabe discovered a tiny, baby animal in the driveway of our volunteer center. None of us really had any idea what it was. The poor thing looked like it had fallen out of the trees and was in pretty bad shape. Maya was very concerned about this and decided to stay behind to care for the animal. We were all pretty convinced this fuzzy little thing was a baby kinkajou.

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Short Video: Kaya’s Place and Bribri Shaman
July 7, 2007

I just got a copy of this video from my friend, Colin, of Banana Azul Guesthouse. It’s not a very professional…

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New Casa Milagro Website
June 18, 2007

We finally have a new, but simple website for our mother foundation, the Casa Milagro Foundation. It has links to our three main project groups and we’ll be working hard to update the site and provide more information as time goes on. We hope you have a chance to take a peek at it. Let us know what you think!

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New Welcome Center and Residence
June 18, 2007

Tropical Adventures and the Casa Milagro Foundation have a new home in Puerto Viejo. This home acts as our Welcome Center, volunteer residence and Spanish school. We’re very excited to have a real presence in town now, as well as having a place for volunteers to gather, get to know one another and spend time together.

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