New Hampton School Costa Rica 2024

March 4, 2024

Day one kicked off with us departing New Hampton around 2 am. We spent most of the day traveling as we had a layover in Houston. Two four hour flights would eventually get us to our destination. We were met by our group leader for the week Fabricio at the airport. We spent dinner getting to know more about each other and the projects we would be doing for the week. A long travel day led most to go to bed early. Excited to get things started in the morning!

By Jonathan and Rodrigo

March 5, 2024

Day two in Costa Rica. The group ventured two hours north west from San Jose to San Carlos. There we visited a local family run cheese farm. Upon arrival we ate lunch and learned about the history of agriculture in Costa Rica. Crisley told us about his farm’s history and his plans for the future. We then split into two groups, some of us tried fresh coconut while the other group learned how to make traditional Costa Rican cheese called “queso Oaxaca” from scratch. After each group completed the cheese making process Crisley took us on a tour of his farm. He showed us all the native plants and explained their medicinal uses. He introduced us to his farm animals and then before we knew it our time at the farm was over and it was time to go to the hotel.

By Ingrid and Camila

March 6, 2024

We spent the morning, mixing and transporting cement to create a sidewalk for a park in the community. We worked with 3 gentleman Giovanni, Jose and Oscar and enjoyed lunch which was prepared by Lily, Maria and Katherine from the community. During lunch we were able to learn more about the community and one another and after it we went for the second shift, a few minutes into our second shift we were informed that the machine used to mix the cement had broken. This provided us the opportunity to learn how to mix cement by hand. We formed an assembly line where we had some people shoveling the gravel into buckets, while others transported them. Although this process was really tiring it was great to learn a new skill. One cool thing that we were able to do, was to leave our handprint on the sidewalk we created.

After a long day of work we enjoyed some chill time at a local river. We met Christopher and his pet turtle!
to wrap up the night we visited local markets in town, upon arriving back to the hotel we held a food tasting gathering for all the new snacks we bought. The pizzerolas and caramelized poropoz were the groups favorite!

By Lena and Alisa

March 7, 2024

We started off our morning with breakfast. We had a sugar cane tour scheduled for 8:30 am which was connected to the hotel. There we worked with two gentleman who taught us about the sugar cane process and how they let it harvest for 8 months before they pull it. They also showed us how to use the machine that squeezes the sugar out of the canes. After they demonstrated how to do it they allowed us to try it ourselves. The process required two people at a time. One who put the sugar cane in the machine and the other who stood on the opposite side to pull it out. After the tour we headed back to the Pueblo Nuevo community to finish the sidewalk we started yesterday. A 30 minute bus ride of good vibes and tunes would lead us back to Pueblo Nuevo. There we met up with the workers from the previous day. They built an extension of the sidewalk so we needed to now fill that and finish the rest of the sidewalk we started yesterday. Everyone quickly got to work. From 9:45-1:00pm the group would work diligently and complete the sidewalk!!!! This was such a wholesome moment for the group. They allowed Tahlia to help smooth out the final section of the sidewalk. The gentleman shared this project would have taken them an entire month and we were able to finish it in a half day.

After we finished the sidewalk we ate lunch which made by locals in the community. We then walk to a nearby river and hung there for about an hour before we met up with kids from the local community. This was the highlight of the day. About 20 kids from the local community showed up and we played a game of soccer with them for a little over a hour. Around 4:15 we headed back to the hotel. On the way home we were treated to homemade Costa Rican ice cream. It was so good! Dinner was at 6pm and we reflected on our two days of service. To wrap the day up we took a salsa class which was a hit.

Tiffany (Our Chaperone)