Spanish Immersion & Volunteering/ Service Learning

I actually already reviewed my Spanish and homestay program, but I also wanted to give a shout out to Annia and Holli for helping me volunteer for two days while I was there. I've been a basketball player all my life, and I've mentored kids from vulnerable areas in my home town of San Jose, through basketball. So I figured why not see if there was something I could do while in Heredia. I volunteered two afternoons after my Spanish classes at a local children's center called Obras de Jesus, which was founded by an association to provide after school tutoring and meals to kids from a neighborhood called Guarari which is really marginalized and has very few opportunities for kids. Alot of the kids I met only ate once a day there at the center, because their parents didn't have enough money to feed them otherwise. Some of them woudl come without shoes, and the center was always doing drives to collect shoes for them. I'm planning on taking down a suitcase full of sneakers next time I go. So anyway, basically I taught them the rules and we played pickup games which i think are called mehengas there, and it was so fun and just a great feeling seeing the kids out there having fun and getting into something most had never played before. In Costa Rica it's mostly football, but there are basketball courts everywhere in the local playgrounds. I bought a few balls to leave with the center, and I hope the kids keep playing and practicing. I also really liked that both boys and girls played, there was no division or feeling like it was only for boys.

As a professional journalist with a strong interest in languages, I was terrifically inspired by the quality of teaching at Intercultura and the application that it had for my work as a writer and publisher. After spending just two weeks at Intercultura studying Spanish - a new language for me - I was able to deliver a short valedictory in Spanish and leave the school with an appreciation of both the language and the local culture. Intercultura is a vital part of this culture, and a tremendous opportunity for students from around the world to expand their knowledge of other cultures and their impact on everyday life. My daughter also studied at Intercultura several years later, and did a work-study internship in the office for three months at the same time. She came back fluent in Spanish, and with a whole new group of friends from all over the world.

My time with Intercultura was amazing. I not only had the amazing opportunity to live with a family, and to be fully immersed in my housing, but also to be fully immersed through class and our many service programs. We went to class for about 3-4 hours a day, and for the rest of the day we did service, surfed, visited different attractions around the city and the beach town, and had so much fun. It was honestly one of the best things I've ever done, and I met people there that were amazing and wonderful. I would HIGHLY recommend this program to people who want to learn Spanish, yes, but also to people who want to be immersed culturally in the Costa Rican culture. Yo amo este programa, y si yo tendría la opportunidad a ir al este tambien, yo iría en un latido de corizon. (I loved this program, and if I had the chance to go to it again, I would go in a heartbeat.)