Lesson of the day: I owe all of my elementary school teachers and class moms about a million more thanks than I ever gave them.
Wednesday was my first time ever chaperoning a field trip and it was a looooooong day. We were supposed to be at school at 7, which meant I had to leave the house at 5:30 am. My teacher, Clara, who also didn’t want to leave so early, came up with a crazy plan: I was going to drive us to school. She explained to me that she has a car but, like most Costa Ricans, doesn’t have a license. She uses it on occasion within the city we live in, but didn’t want to drive the 40 minutes to work on the highway without a license. She decided that my New Mexico license was good enough and asked if I would drive us the next day. Loving driving as much as I do, I readily agreed before realizing that, oh yeah, I’m in a foreign country with new rules and unfamiliar driving customs in a car I’ve never driven before. Too late, it was go-time. Lucky for me, Costa Rican road rules are almost identical to US ones, I’m a decent driver, and Clara did a perfect job of directing me through one-way streets and crazy intersections. I’m not quite aggressive enough to be a Costa Rican driver yet, but everyone was thoroughly impressed nonetheless. I was quite proud of myself for not even killing a chicken, let alone a small child. On the way home, I finally realized that my speedometer was marked in miles per hour, not in kilometers per hour and that I’d been trying to speed the whole way there because I thought we were going too slow. Oops. Even managed passing on the Interamericana- the highway (read: surprising small road) that runs from Mexico to Panama. All in all, a success.
Anyway, long story long, we made it to school on time and alive. Of course, everyone was running on Tico-time and we didn’t end up leaving until 45 minutes later (which we all knew would happen) when we’d finally rounded up all the kids and their projects. We took the bus to the town of Fortuna, about 45 minutes beyond Bagaces where I work. This sleepy little town is higher up in the surrounding countryside and was a welcome relief from the Liberian heat. The school we were going to has a terrific view of Volcán Miravalles, one of the many volcanoes flanking the Liberia region. The school in Fortuna was hosting the Arts Festival for the local elementary and high schools. Schools competed in events such as Folklore Dance, Storytelling, Painting, Flute Ensemble, Choreographed Dance, and a million other things.
The events were held in some sort of town common area. Essentially it was a rather large cinderblock room with a tin roof that made everything unnecessarily canned-sounding and loud. For the morning events, one of the local schools was there and talked the WHOLE time. Poppy (another volunteer) and I were absolutely shocked by the level of disrespect shown to the performers by the audience. There was never once quiet, even for things like poetry readings or skits when the dialog was crucial to knowing what was happening. The whole event was flooded by full volume conversations and screams and cheers. The worst was the screaming teenage girls when the boy bands were performing. They hit that perfect pitch where every muscle in your body wants to start twitching simultaneously and sustained it for several hours. It didn´t help that the culture is just inclined to be loud anyway. Then there was the feedback from a poorly setup mic/speaker combination and a lot of really terrible little musicians with out of tune guitars. Basically, after seven hours in this crowded noise box, I was the most irritable chaperone anyone could ask for and didn´t want to talk to anybody for at least several hours. But, as anyone who´s ever been on a field trip can tell you, bus rides home aren´t so conducive to that. My one-word summary of the day: loud.
Even though we competed in plenty of events, our Bagaces elementary only won at a couple events and only the ones where we were the only entrants in the category. The kids were…disappointed to say the least. I felt really bad for them, but the ones who won were at least happy a bit. It was neat to see all of the hard work they´d put into all of their performances. I especially enjoyed the dance portions. The high schools, naturally put on a better show, but our little ones were cute too.
Also, field trip lunches rock here. Not only did we bring along our own lunch lady, but we got a full lunch just like we would have had at school. We had an entire cooler full of mixed rice (Yeah, just open the cooler- it´s full of rice.), beans, chips, and even fresh pineapple and tamarind juice. Yum!
Remind me to thank everyone who ever chaperoned a field trip for me. Not as easy as I thought it would be, nor as relaxed. Soooo much noise!! I loved getting to see the volcano, experience a bit of the town, learn more about Costa Rican culture and have lots of conversations with my kids and fellow teachers. Overall, a positive day, but not something I´m in a hurry to do again anytime soon.