Service Day

Last Thursday, every student and most teachers in UWCCR participated in what is called 'Service Day'. This is a day where we choose out of one of the many volunteering options that we have, to volunteer at a specific location somewhat near the community where we live.
As I mentioned before, my service CAS is working in La Carpio, the poorest part of Costa Rica.  In this CAS, we help to educate young teenagers living there, to make healthy life decisions.  For example, when I visited La Carpio last week with some students, we educated them about the challenges of parenthood. There are many teenage pregnancies in La Carpio, where the father abandons his duty of being a father, and leaves the teenage girl to deal with parenthood all on her own. We hoped to educate the teenage boys on what it means to be a parent-  plenty of love, costs and commitment.  I hope that it has made them more aware of the reality of parenthood, and has delayed their age of becoming a father.

As I am very committed to La Carpio, I decided to volunteer at La Carpio again- this time, painting houses.
Sixteen other students chose to do this option also!
We arrived at La Carpio at around 8:30am, and immediately began painting the tinned houses with all sorts of bright and cheerful colours.  I was assigned to the colour yellow, along with my second year friends, Alice, Lino and Robin.
We painted up until around 2pm, where we were then served a lunch of 'Gallo Pinto' - ( beans and rice).   The lady in charge of the whole La Carpio project- Gale, took us who wanted to go, to the poorest part of La Carpio.  This was such a memorable/haunting experience.  It was so hard to believe that people lived in those so called 'homes'.  The houses were made of scraps of tin, and the walkways to their houses were rotten wooden plants across the garbage-filled sewage river.
I clearly remember the image of an infant crouching in a dirt-stained light pink dress, with garbage all around her.  She stared up at us, her eyes were as lifeless as the two dolls that laid beside her.  At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to take her to a safe, comfortable home, far away from the garbage-lined back alley that she 'played' on.
This is experience was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  All of the hard work that I put in was so worthwhile, seeing the smiles spread at the La Carpio communities faces!  We completely transformed the place!  In the near future, I would love to do much more volunteer work in La Carpio.

                     

 

San Jose

Last weekend, I went to Costa Rica's capital in order to do some early Christmas shopping for my friends and family in Wales and the U.S.  We visited the art market, which was filled with souvenirs- perfect for Christmas presents!  I went a little overboard with shopping, and managed to buy myself a hammock to hang up around campus (which has not yet happened, after a failed attempt resulting in me and my Finnish friend Peppi lying in a heap on the floor!)

Christmas

Christmas is coming soon!  Meaning that we have a month's break, where I will travel to Michigan to visit my family!  I haven't seen them in just short of two years!  So I'm very excited to see them again in exactly 3 weeks today!  It will be nice to be out of campus for a while.  It can sometimes seem like you're trapped in a UWCCR bubble being here- oblivious to everything that's happening outside!

SkyJump

At the moment, this place is the place to be in UWCCR!  Skyjump is a GIANT warehouse, lined with trampolines!  It contains everything you need to have an incredible night out with your friends!  From basketball hoops to a sponge pit.  I have been there five times already, and I'm still not tired of it! 

Keep Reading!

Dilly x

1st Trimester's Almost Over!

Sorry that I haven't posted in such a long time!  It's nearing the end of the trimester, which means only one thing.. lots of tests!  
Over the last 2 weeks, I have spent the majority of my time in the study room in my residence.  I only had one test last week, but this week, I have 6!  I have been doing fine with my academics, although, apparently it gets harder as you have to remember things from the first trimester when studying in the fourth trimester etc.  But I will try to motivate and organize myself to study a little each day, even when there are no tests.

INBio

Although this was a while ago, (around the 8th of October) I thought I'd mention it as I had so much fun.  My E-systems (environmental class) went on a field trip to Costa Rica's National Biodiversity Institute in order to observe (and take note in our field journals) some of Costa Rica's plentiful wildlife. 

I had a great time, and learnt a lot about many species, from the Morpho butterfly (the butterfly associated with Costa Rica)  to the Heliconia plant which produces a white powder under its leaf which acts as sun screen!

E-Systems field trip

October Break

Between the 17th and the 20th of October, me and another 17 'UWCers' rented a villa in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica for October Break.  During this period, we went to the beach, visited the National Park/ Nature Reserve and jumped off a beautiful waterfall.

The villa that we stayed in was called 'The Jungle Villa', which was a deluxe wooden shack.  The second floor (which you entered the building on) was completely open.  You could see the sea from this floor!  The bottom floor (where I slept)  mainly consisted of bedrooms and bathrooms- all of the rooms had at least two beds in each, and so I ended up sleeping with my two good friends, Chesca from Costa Rica/UK and Mara from the U.S.

We were fortunate enough to have three pools!!  The water was cool, but very refreshing in the hot weather- it didn't rain once when we were there, this is very rare, as it's still the wet season here.

As I swam in the pool and floated on my back, looking up at the sky, the dense canopy above acted as not only a shelter from the blazing sun, but as a jungle gym for the three types of monkeys living in the area!  I could only identify two unfortunately, one was the Titi monkey and the other was a howler monkey.  I also was fortunate enough to see a sloth in a tree next to the other UWC villa nearby, although I did not manage to see its face, as it has its head hidden underneath its arm!  But nonetheless, it was very exciting!

Manuel Antonio Beach at Sunset

The Jungle Villa at Night

Overall, I had a wonderful time, and became closer to many people, both first years and second years. 

My Birthday

On October the 28th, it was my first birthday away from home.  This was a very strange prospect to me, a part of me was very excited to experienced the UWC birthday traditions here on campus, and to celebrate with people from all corners of the world, but another part of me wished to be home on my birthday, and to celebrate with my friends and family back at home.

But, I managed to Skype my Welsh friends on the eve of my birthday, and as the clock struck midnight back at home, they sang and celebrated my 17th Birthday.  I really appreciated it, and hope to Skype them again soon!

I was kidnapped at around 11:15pm as I was walking into my room, my legs we taken out from under me, and a blindfold was tied or rather thrown on my face, as I was hauled away like a wooden plank.

During this kidnapping, I was tickled, pinched and pocked until I squirmed like a worm and squealed with laughter!

After a good ten minutes of carrying me around campus, I was eventually put down on the ground, and had the blindfold taken off me to find 50 people around me wishing me a happy birthday!  It was so wonderful!  I had a giant amount of birthday hugs and wishes!

Upon returning to my room, hand in hand with my friend Amiya from India, there were around twenty people in my room with 2 birthday cakes and around 55 cards wishing me a great birthday!  It was the nicest surprise I have ever received!  Honestly, I was very worried that nobody would remember that it was my birthday, this was a huge contrast to what I had pictured would go on in my head!

So, I'd just like to say a huge thanks to everyone who made my birthday as special as it was, I really do appreciate it! :) 

I just thought I'd end this post with a fantastic photo that I forgot to put up, of me and my fellow first years at camp!

Keep Reading!

Dilly x