Service & Community Immersion in Costa Rica

My expectations for the trip were that I would get to further practice my Spanish, meet and interact with Costa Ricans, experience new culture, scenery, while being pushed out of my comfort zone. I would say this trip definitely met these expectations and certainly exceeded them in interacting What gave me the greatest sense of accomplishment was being able to see the progress that our group made on the construction projects. It was very rewarding to see how much we helped build/improve. For example, when working in the concha, the kids would often stop by, and it was very rewarding to see how they excited they were about our painting it. The highlights of my experience were the home-stays where we got to stay with a local family. I also enjoyed interacting with the community while working in it because I got to use my Spanish and experience the vastly different culture. In general I think there was a pretty good balance of time spent on each activity, but sometimes there was a bit of a lack of adventure activities. I would have liked to have done more exploring of the area in San Jose de Rivas.

I went into the program hoping to improve my Spanish (specifically speaking) while also having fun and helping a community, and both of those goals were met and exceeded! I'll admit I was not so keen about the independent projects before I completed mine, but wow, doing those interviews ended up being incredibly rewarding in terms of learning Spanish and learning about the community, and also a whole lot of fun. Highlights included interviewing members of the community, hiking to "La Piedra", swimming in the river by the village, talking with Macho (village work leader), surfing and going to the beach at Playa Uvita, horse back riding, and white water rafting! I felt there was a great balance and I don't remember thinking we spent too much or too little time on any activity.

Going into Putney's Costa Rica community service trip, I expected the leaders to be inviting and caring towards everyone in the group. I am happy to say that Maddy and Bryan have both succeeded in doing so and throughout the trip, I was able to talk to them about anything and feel as if I was talking to a very close friend of mine. Going into the village and helping out with several service projects gave me the highest sense of accomplishment. I'm not going to lie, going into the village the first night I was very overwhelmed but during the time being there with the little kids and helping out the community I began to learn that you don't need the finest things to be happy, all you need are a great group of people. One highlight of my trip was white water rafting. Through this activity, I became close with several other people within the group and remain to communicate today. The second highlight of my trip was being able to see the smiles on the kid's faces when playing with them. Not only did the little kids hang out with us but some of the older kids would talk to us, and we would get along well even though there was a language barrier. The last highlight of the trip was the traveling day into the village. Although the ride was very long, I was able to look out the car and appreciate the beautiful scenery surrounding me. I think the trip was balanced out well.

My expectations for the program as I was going into it were to have interactions/friendships with the local people, working alongside the locals to complete our community service projects, and to have fun. I believe that the program exceeded my expectations. The thing that gave me the greatest sense of accomplishment was finally finishing our large scale community service project, and seeing the difference it made in the locals lives. What I personally gained from the program is maturity (due to the fact I was away from my family) and to be more responsible. The highlights of my experience in Costa Rica were zip lining, white water rafting, beach days, reveling down a cliff, visiting and swimming in various waterfalls, and playing soccer with the locals every now and then. Yes, I believe that the program was well balanced in terms of how our time was spent.

I chose to do Putney Student Travel's 24 day community service trip to Costa Rica. This was my first trip like this alone and at first the length of it scared me. After arriving in Miami to meet with the other students on the trip for our group flight I met Jeff, one of our group leaders, who welcomed me with a smile and great positivity for our three and a half week adventure together. At that moment I knew that 24 days would not be enough. After just that one night of meeting all these new and incredible people I felt like they were all my closest friends, I was shocked, I never thought I could connect to and love strangers the way I did in such a short period of time. We all only continued to grow closer and closer, which honestly I didn't think was possible because I felt so at home with every single one of them. Once we all arrived in Costa Rica we met our second group leader, Gabi. I could tell from the moment that I met Gabi that her kindness and support for the group would become contagious. As a group we completed rewarding community service projects in a small community called San Jose de Rivas. There I connected with many local families and made friendships that will last a life time, shedding many tears as I left them on our final days. I went into this review trying to make it short and sweet but there is no possible way to sum up this life changing experience, if I had hours of free time I would tell you every single detail because not one moment went forgotten. All in all this program was absolutely incredible and it fulfilled me in a way I didn't know I needed until I went on the trip. I would send my future children on this program because of how essential I think it is to a person and their individual self awareness level. My trip to Costa Rica occupies a large part of my heart, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I went on the Community Service trip to Costa Rica with Putney. Overall, the experience was one in a lifetime and thoroughly recommendable. I live in the UK and travelled to Miami to meet with the group who were made up of two leaders and 13 kids. The other kids were mainly Americans, with the addition of two French boys and a girl from the Netherlands. The mix of people worked really well and we made lots of progress with our community service project. I was away for a well-structured month which consisted of working weekdays and 'vacation' excursion trips on the weekends to explore the vast activities that Costa Rica has to offer. During the weekdays we stayed in the remote village of Biolley. Here there is a small-scale coffee plantation where we helped out by mixing and laying cement, moving and making coffee beds, weighing and bagging coffee and lots of other general jobs around the ecolodge. We also helped out with the cooking which allowed me to bring home new recipes to cook for my family. We got to know the villagers very well and were even invited to do homestays for a night. On the weekend excursions, we went to various parts of Costa Rica to do activities like surfing, horse-riding , zip-lining, white-water-rafting, plunge-pool jumping and swimming in waterfalls. On top of this, we got to see some incredible animals including sloths, toucans, tarantulas, crocodiles, monkeys, iguanas and parrots. All in all, if you are looking to go to an amazing country to meet some amazing people, both local Costa Ricans and fellow group members, then you should choose the Putney Community Service trip to Costa Rica.

This was one of the best experiences in my life. Going into this trip I expected nothing, all I knew was that I was going to Costa Rica with my twin sister. We did not know anything else about the trip, we did not know a single person. Now when I look back at the trip I would not have spent my summer any other way. I meet some of the most interesting and fun people I have ever met, everybody came from a different place and everybody had different stories. But we learned to grow as a family. I look back and think of the people in Costa Rica as my second family, they will always be there for you and care for you. Even though the work was hard, it was all worth it in the end. Seeing all of the local peoples faces once we finished our projects was one of the happiest moments in my life. Every single day everybody woke up with a smile on their face and they were ready to work. And of course we did not only work every single day, we also had time for the group just to bond and enjoy each others company. The costa rica trip that Putney provides is a great learning experience, it also gives you the feeling of a second family. I strongly recommend this program for teenagers because it is mind blowing and you learn a lot, you also get to meet some amazing people.