We are a family of 3: myself, my wife, Jen, and our 6 year old daughter, Alex.  My daughter is off from school for 2 months each summer and this year we wanted to take a trip together for the duration. Given the length of the trip, we were looking for something that would give us a chance to work and learn together instead of a traditional tourist-style vacation.  I thought we needed more stimulation than that to entertain a 6 year old for 2 full months. Before we had our daughter, I had enjoyed longer submersion-type vacations and I had been waiting eagerly for an opportunity to take one again. Now that she had reached the age of 6, we felt we were at a stage that she could contribute as much as she could learn and we were anxious to try to make it work. After months of coordinating the time off work and the prepayment of household bills, we set off on a trip that would last the length of our daughter’s summer vacation and would end up exceeding all of our expectations.

We flew into the country and were greeted by one of the Tropical Adventures drivers. This was the beginning of a major transition for our family and Manuel , the driver, provided just the kind of greeting we needed. He was warm, reliable, and sincere and would be our first indication of the careful screening done by Scott and Isaac, the founders of Tropical Adventures. Manuel drove us to our first volunteer activity in La Flor, a small agricultural community in the mountains in-between Paraiso and Cervantes. We were to stay in this town for a full month so I was very nervous about our homestay there. From the moment Manuel drove us by our family’s house the evening we arrived, we knew our concerns were unfounded. We had arrived late but our family had stayed up waiting to greet us and show us to our home. Since there were 3 of us, they had us stay in a detached home just down the street from their own in order to give us more space and privacy. Their son used to live in the home but has since moved on and this environment would prove to be perfect for us. It gave us space when needed but also allowed us all the interaction with our host family we had so been looking forward to.  

Our family in La Flor would prove to far exceed our expectations. They were unbelievable.  From the meals they cooked to their seemingly endless desire to include us in all of their family’s activities. We couldn’t have hand selected a better family to stay with and we would miss them dearly after we left for our next projects. They were a large family with only a single remaining 18 year daughter left living at home. To make things better, they had several grandchildren living close by with whom Alex would grow very close with over the 4 week period we spent there. Alex played with their children like they were siblings and this made our integration into their family and culture all that much easier. They genuinely enjoyed having us there and we enjoyed being a part of their lives, if even for a short while.

Our volunteer activities in La Flor were mainly focused around teaching English both in a nearby school in El Yaz as well as a late afternoon class to the children in La Flor. For a family of 3 with a 6 year old daughter, this proved to be a wonderful activity for us. Our schedule during the week consisted of waking around 7, making our way over to our family’s home for breakfast around 8 and then the 3 of us began our 20 minute walk down the mountain to El Yaz to teach 2 English classes there. The classes in El Yaz were sometimes a challenge as not  all of the children there were anxious to learn English. But this proved to simply be one of the many obstacles we would face and overcome as a family. By the end of our month in La Flor, we had worked with the director of the school to change the class from being compulsory to being voluntary. At that point, the only students who attended the class were ones that were willing and anxious to learn and the classes there would turn out to be ones we looked very forward to each morning.

After our classes in El Yaz we headed back up the mountain to La Flor. This usually proved to be too long of a hike for our 6-yr old daughter and she usually wound up riding on top of my shoulders. But I never minded because at least we were together. At home Id be working and she’d be at school but here we were together, all day, every day. 

The children from the classes lived all along the road up to La Flor and many of them would accompany us on our walk back. They were enamored with Alex and her with them. Our daughter has never been very shy and she engaged almost every child we encountered from  the day we arrived in La Flor, including the students. From the moment they met, the children played together like old friends even though they didn’t speak a common language. It was incredible to watch. And as the weeks went by, we could see the changes in her comprehension of the language. In the beginning she knew very little more than please and thank you and by the end, she was playing games with the children in Spanish and responding to questions asked by our host families. This is a wonderful foundation for an education in Spanish.

We arrived back into La Flor after the walk back from El Yaz by 1:00 or so and enjoyed a lunch with our host family. We would then often have some afternoon Spanish lessons before beginning our next English class in a building just down the street from where we were staying. This class was comprised of about 20 to 25 children ranging in age from 5 to 13. This class was always a lot of fun for us, as well as our daughter. Here we would often play games in English to help the children learn the sounds and Alex would sing them the alphabet or teach them English songs. She was our biggest asset with this class and when the children saw her speak, they responded to her. Like with many things, children learn most quickly from other children and they just loved having Alex in class. When the children saw Alex speaking English, it suddenly seemed more attainable to them. When the students did exercises on their own, Alex would go around with my wife and check on their progress. We were a team when we taught and everyone had a role. 

After our class in La Flor, we usually spent some time playing games outside the building for a  while which gave the kids a chance to run and play around. They had a lot of pent-up energy after sitting through the hour and a half English class. This also gave Alex more time to build friendships with the children in town. After only days in La Flor, we couldn’t walk up to the nearby Pulperia without the children recognizing us and running to greet us. It was an incredibly friendly town and we would miss this when we spent time in the larger cities.

Our time in La Flor was invaluable and even allowed us a few weekend getaways and a tour hosted by the Tropical Adventures staff to a nearby volcano. We were very well taken care of by the staff and were checked on frequently. At one point, our daughter had contracted a stomach infection and the Tropical Adventures Staff responded very quickly by coming to pick us up and taking us to a wonderful physician’s office in a nearby town. We were amazed by the care she received and always felt safe and secure, regardless of where we were in the country. We were always given the space we needed to grow from our experience but if we were ever in need, Tropical Adventures was very quick to respond.

After 4 weeks in La Flor, it was time to say goodbye to our host family and friends and transition to a new project. Argentina, the mother of the host family with which we stayed very much enjoyed painting. In the afternoons, she spent many days enjoying her hobby.  As it turned out, she had been making a painting for us and gave it to us just before we left. It was an incredible gift and will always remind us of the generosity this family had given us. We had developed strong relationships with our host family in La Flor. With Argentina, our host mother and her Husband, Jose-Annival. With their children and grandchildren as well. Saying goodbye would turn out to be very emotional and although our Spanish had come along well, finding the proper words to adequately express our feelings was difficult.  Our experiences with this family will change our lives for a long time to come.

We transitioned from La Flor to Monkey Park in Guanacaste late on a Sunday afternoon. The park was closed on Mondays so we had the day off and we took a quick public bus ride to the coast for a day at the beach. We began work on Tuesday in the park which was a shelter for injured and abandoned animals. Here we worked as a family to plant new gardens, trim trees and work on trails. Compared to the work in La Flor, this work was much more  physically demanding and was an enjoyable change from the teaching.  Isaac, from Tropical Adventures, checked on us frequently and always brought snacks. The sight of his car pulling in became a beacon to stop work for my daughter and she would always run to his car to greet him. She so much enjoyed his company and waited anxiously for him on days she knew he was to come.

When the physical demands of the work exceeded the abilities (or the attention span) of a 6 year old little girl, she would often roam the park checking on the animals or even retreat to our home there for some afternoon card games. It was a very accommodating environment for a family such as ours and at the end of the week, we really felt like we had accomplished something and were proud of what we had done. This was exactly the feeling we were looking for when we began this trip.

After transitioning out of Monkey Park, we headed south to Hojancha to work in the Monte  Alto National Park. Here we had another homestay with a wonderful family just outside the town center. They had a 2 year old daughter and this proved to be yet another fantastic experience for us and Alex. Here we would wake up at 6 each day, eat breakfast and be in the town center by 7 for a ride into the park.  In the park, Jen and Alex worked the week in the kitchen with the park cook helping to create the meals for the park guests and staff. They both seemed to really enjoy this time together and felt very useful. Cecilia, the park cook, worked very long days and seemed to genuinely enjoy the help. Jen would help cut up meats and vegetables and Alex would help make the bread and serve the meals. On the other side of the park, I worked on reconstructing and painting benches as well as building a new seating area under a gazebo below the park office. But with all the work, we still had an opportunity to take time for ourselves and tour the park. We hiked all of the park’s trails including the longest of the trails which took us up the side of the mountain to a beautiful lookout in a 4 hour loop. Our work volunteering has always been very well mixed with time enjoying ourselves and experiencing this beautiful country. 

Two months ago, before we left for this trip, I had many concerns. I had called references given to me from the staff and the words from these references comforted me enough to commit our entire summer vacation to doing volunteer work for Tropical Adventures. But this was an enormous obligation and I was still taking my family, complete with a young daughter to another country and I couldn’t help but feel responsible for the outcome. Two months later,  I’m proud of the outcome. We have been humbled more times than I can count and we have met and befriended more people than I could ever hope to be able correspond with. We are incredibly lucky to have had this opportunity together and the dedication of the Tropical Adventures staff made it possible. This has been a summer we will never forget and the things we have seen and done here will in many ways change the course of our lives. 

Michael Schell, Arizona US.