Guias y Scouts

Since I arrieved in La Palma and heard about the boy/girl scout troup in Jimenez, I've sort of casually thought of starting a troup in La Palma. It's called Guias y Scouts and it's based off the USA version, but it's obviously adapted to the Costa Rican culture and the boys and girls are in separate troups but they all meet together, have the same uniform and it's the same program that they follow. So, this past weekend I went with the Jimenez troup to Cartagena and we hiked in the Corovado national park and stayed at a really cool eco lodge called La Leona. There is a ton that I can write about each of these things, but I don't have a ton of time so I'll stick to Guias y Scouts and fill you in on the park and the lodge later. You can not imagine how seriously they take their troups and how well they do it. In CR there is a real lack of things for people to do. There is a lot of TV watching, but it's not like in the States where you can just join a club or play on one of 100 teams. There is just nothing to do, so Guias y Scouts provides a really healthy activity for the kids where they can learn a ton of life skills and feel really proud to be a part of something. It's really beautiful. I watched as the troup leaders would blow their whistles and the kids would run from where ever they were to fall in formation and shout out their troup call. It was so cool. I did girl scouts when I was a kid, but I don't think I took it very seriously and I don't recall their being any troup calls or whistles. The program is great and I'm going to do everything I possibly can to make it happen in La Palma. The kids will love it and I think it could really help keep them safe and teach them how to have fun in a really health and way.

I'm still working on the computer problem in La Palma, This is going to take a while... Otherwise, I'm doing really well, time is flying by and as I get to know more people in the community and make friends and have more projects, I'm feeling a lot happier here. I think I may have made it through the hardest part (hopefully).

***Okay, as I read over some of my blog entries and e-mails, I'm noticing that my English no is very good (that was a joke). But, really, if you read this and think, wow, that was really bad sentence construction, just know that pretty much all day everyday is in Spanish and it makes it hard to switch over to English with out any bumps. It's kind of funny actually, I catch myself making some of the same mistakes that my English students make.***