School Daze

Since 1994 I have worked at a school that somehow missed most of the wear and tear of other schools of its vintage. (1965) In many ways this was the result of teachers who worked their entire careers at that school and were solidly invested in it.  The school had a new stage with curtains a few years back.  Old carpets that had come unstuck from the cement were replaced and all of the carpets were cleaned every summer. The teacher’s lounge was repainted by a teacher and blinds installed. The classrooms were spacious and well cared for with windows on one side.

We had a beautiful library filled with books of all kinds enabling kids to read, research, and learn how to use a library. Primary students had story time on the rug there.  Upper grade students could find books supporting their interests in science, history, biography, or fiction. Frankly, it was one of the gems of our school supported by many teachers, librarians, and parents over the years.

The school also boasted a wonderful computer lab with a computer for every child and internet access for all. Students learned to keyboard, do research and create graphic presentations there. They learned about the power and dangers of the internet while writing blogs and doing research. Lessons in English, early reading and mathematics were also available. Here was a place where real life skills were taught every week. Teachers decided to make keyboarding important and many students left our school with skills far beyond those of their teachers, ready to write and publish reports with graphics of every kind. The faculty fought to retain our computer aide who kept the lab clean and the machines running. We didn’t always have the most up-to-date equipment being a small school with little federal monies but what we had was used daily and repaired when broken.

When a “modernization” bond was passed our school packed up and moved to another site. Although a decade newer than ours it looks much the worse for the wear. Regular rooms have but one small window in the door and most of the campus is crowded with aging portables rusting and crumbling from the outside in. Of course all portables lack sinks contributing to the squalid and temporary feel of them. The library there is organized according to an outside reading program and bears no likeness to a real library, the kind students will encounter later in their academic careers.  The computer lab too is small with too few computers for our now large classes. Clashes with the “new” school’s computer aide over curriculum have been largely resolved sometimes by using the lab when our aide is there.

So we’ve all made adjustments. Students bring commercial wipes for their hands, water bottles, and paper towels. Many teaching materials remain in boxes for lack of storage. In my class good students must give up their recess in order to go to the library. The rest simply don’t go, there is no time in the library schedule for my class to go. So no lessons on how to use a library and no books for them to borrow. Sad.

The modernization going on at our school consists of making changes to conform with the Americans with Disabilities Act such as flattening the thresholds to classrooms, removing cabinets under sinks and reducing the teacher’s restroom to just one handicapped stall. Perhaps a new heating system? No one really knows or if they do it’s a state secret. It does seem odd to me that at one school cabinets are being removed for wheelchair access under the sinks while at the other, sinks don’t even exist in classrooms.

But now the other shoe has finally dropped. Our lovely school will be used to house other schools due to be modernized and we will combine with our current site to form one large school. Granted, having to move all our materials once again would be burdensome but at the end we would be back in our nice neighborhood able to take advantage of the amenities like sinks, a fully stocked library we helped create, and a working computer lab for which we also lobbied. The educational environment we created along with our community is gone. We can’t recreate it at a site that’s never been ours.

Oh, and yes the teachers are great at our “new” school and working with them is terrific but teachers spend the vast majority of every day in their classroom with children or working there alone after school. And just because working in a decrepit portable with no sink and inadequate storage may be the norm in California that doesn’t mean teachers have to like it.

It’s a damned shame.

From Wild to Wilder

On to Drake Bay via San Jose

Tortuguero, Caribbean Sea and canal

San Jose from the air

That's what the guide said to us as we left Tortuguero for Drake Bay and Corcovado National Park on the southern Pacific side of Costa Rica. We packed up for another boat ride across the canal to meet our plane. It was barely sprinkling when we took off for San Jose.  After a short 25 minute flight we landed at San Jose to change planes for another 40 minute hop to Drake Bay.  Unfortunately the air turbulence was pretty intense during that 40 minutes and a few members of our party required airsick bags. But what fantastic views out of windows.

Beach landing

The airstrip at Drake Bay is surrounded by green fields and we were met by a driver and a few barking dogs. He threw the bags on the top of the van and we hopped in for a short ride over the hill  down the main street of Bahia Drake to the beach where we waded into the water to board the boat to the Drake Bay Wilderness Resort. Frankly, beach landings are pretty much the standard in this part of the world. The drivers back the boats up as far as they can onto the beach and you scramble in or out as best you can trying not to be knocked over by the small swells or step on a big rock. Try not to lose your shoes, backpack, hat, or whatever else you've brought along.

Drake Bay Wilderness Resort boasts a dock so no beach landing there. It also boasts a good deal of sunshine and not much rain so we anticipated some drying out. What fools were we! Down in the south the humidity is considerably higher regardless of the sunshine. And of course it does rain, especially at night which really bugs the howler monkeys for some reason and their noise making can be heard a mile away. Humidity does have an upside: no need for moisturizer, anywhere. On the flip side the sheets always feel a little damp and your bathing suit never drys unless you lay in the sun letting your body heat dry it. You can try to hang your clothes out to dry but 3 days later nothing will have changed. Ah, but there was a solution. The resort had washers and dryers and washed and dried your clothes for free, even your shoes. I didn't know about the shoes until we left so I came home with really stinky shoes.

Drake Bay croc

Mural in our room

The resort can be reached by hiking from the town across the river or by boat. It sits on rocky spit of land surrounded by water and jungle.  The actual bay is home to a couple of crocodiles and some shorebirds.  A crystalline river snakes out of the jungle to meet the ocean here. Toucans are abundant if not always visible. Our rooms are like small cabins, again with no glass in the windows just screens and shutters to keep out the light and the bugs. Built of renewable Costa Rican hardwood with porches and painted murals inside they are charming and comfortable. The views to the ocean are only slightly obstructed  by flowering plants and palm trees. Hammocks rock gently in the breeze and the pool is salt water.  Lunch is served at the bar overlooking the pool and the ocean. Every afternoon the chairs that line the rail around the bar area are filled with people reading while the tables accommodate families playing games or even checking email.

A spoonbill of some sort, never did get
his name.

When we arrive we get a list of the activities available to us and since we're there for 6 days we have at least 5 activities included.  Our meals are paid for, including wine with dinner. We can order drinks from the bar after 3:30 in the afternoon which are not included but cost little in comparison with U.S. prices. So after getting the 411 we unpack and get together to decide which activities interest us. The rest of the adventure begins the next day.

Drake Bay Resort - ocean side

A Jungle Christmas

All I wanted for Christmas (actually all I always want) was a trip to the unknown, a voyage, an expedition. A place far from concrete, the internet, and commercials. A place of peace and discovery. Somewhere to rest my eyes on the beauty of nature. So with family in tow I traveled by plane and boat to the Costa Rican rain forest. We traveled to places unreachable by road. Canopy covered outboard skiffs ply the canals of Tortuguero on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica and move people and supplies in Drake Bay on the southern Pacific.

Rain on the river

Tortuguero 

On the boardwalk

In Tortuguero, known for the green sea turtles who lay their eggs on the beach there, we stayed in rooms built on stilts connected with covered boardwalks.  Screens instead of glass cover window openings, nothing to keep out the sounds of the forest growing around us. Rain poured from the sky in torrents at night prompting loud complaints from the howler monkeys. The metal roofs intensified the sound of the rain and one night a monkey cavorting on the metal roof woke everyone at 1:30 leaving us wondering what in the world was going on. We took a boat tour up the canals of Tortuguero National Park to see wildlife. It takes a very good eye to spot animals in the rain forest. The forest there grows right down to the water, dense and green. We started in sunshine our guide pointing out birds and plants and continued in a downpour clad in thick army green ponchos. When the rain finally ceased and we pushed back our hoods many of us were quite wet. You'd need a poncho sealed to your face and neck with duct tape to be completely dry.

Muddy boots

Mud, mud, and more mud. Sticky, thick, slurping mud. We donned rubber boots for a trek through the forest surrounding the lodge. We didn't see many animals, our slopping around wasn't very quiet. Our guide proceeded confidently through the mud along the trail stopping to tell us about the trees growing above and around us. Their adaptations for growth and reproduction  in near constant rain are fascinating. Their roots are tall yet shallow and spread out around the tree to keep it anchored in place. On the ground we trudged through and around ankle deep mud trying to keep our boots on. Our feet made loud sucking sounds as we pulled them from the muck toes curled to keep from leaving the boots behind. The sky was clear then but the dripping of water from leaves continued sending rivulets of water down our backs or faces. In fact the constant dripping left me unsure about  the weather. Was it raining or was I just walking under some trees?

A little blurry but....

During the rainy season, we were there during the "dry" season, the sea turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. No pictures or ponchos are allowed and tourists must be quiet as possible. But during the dry season those eggs hatch and the baby turtles race unerringly toward the surf to be swept into the vast ocean. To hell with watching the mamas lay eggs, our guide rounded us up and we caught a boat across the canal to the beach. The babies were hatching! We hurried down the beach in time to see a nest of new turtles scrambling up from their sandy hole and dashing to the sea. For this experience you need only watch where you step, turn your flash off, and be amazed. We took pictures and video and oohed and aahed like proud new parents. We warned each other not to step back or to be still. Those babies weren't deterred by the deep footprints we left in the sand nor the three foot sand cliff that stood between them and the sea. Falling off the cliff they'd land upside down exposing their white undersides, right themselves and scoot toward the water to be swept away. I was giddy with excitement and wonder. In less than 30 minutes the nest was empty and the turtles were at sea. What a truly awe inspiring experience.

This was why I'd come. Wonder, awe, peace, discovery.