Over spring break, Spanish teacher Kimbery Lackey took a group of seven students on a trip to Costa Rica. The students were in Costa Rica from March 15th through March 24th. Throughout the trip, students were immersed in the culture of a country that is different from the United States.
Costa Rica offered many foods that senior Logan Schober had not tried before, Casado is a meal that he ate almost every day.
“My favorite thing was probably the typical lunch every day, which is called a Casado, which means ‘married man.’ The story behind it is that people used to stop by someone’s house for food, where they would get rice, beans, salad, meat, plantains, and other food, but they would tell the cook ‘make it for me like I’m a married man, because my wife gives me a lot of food.’ So they started calling it a Casado, and that’s what we ate every day for lunch,” Schober said.
Throughout the trip the students did a lot of different activities that they might not have gotten to experience otherwise, Lackey said.
“We did a lot of adventurous things, including white water rafting, zip lining, hiking in a tropical forest, learning about how chocolate is made, learning about an organic farm and all kinds of plants. We went to hot springs and relaxed, we swam in a waterfall,” Lackey said.
Along with activities, Costa Rica also had different animals that students saw for the first time in person.
“We saw several sloths. Sometimes we would be driving somewhere and pull off the side of the road [because we saw] a sloth up in a tree and stop [to] take some pictures. We saw a lot of monkeys at the beach, mostly White Faced Capuchin Monkeys. We heard Howler Monkeys, but I don’t think we ever saw the Howler Monkeys. We [also] saw Iguanas,” Lackey said.
Lackey liked many parts of the trip but her favorite was spending time with Costa Rican families.
“[I liked] the family stay because the students [stayed] with [host] families for three days in a small, very rural town that’s very different from Fenton. I think it opened up everybody’s eyes to a different way of living and a new culture,” Lackey said.
While staying with the families, Lackey and the students did a lot of activities.
“[One] of the activities we did together [was a] pick up soccer game called a Meanga. Everybody played together with the kids and it was really fun. They had a really good time. We had some really good soccer players,” Lackey said.
Sophomore Ashlinn Kloos said that there were a lot of differences in the Costa Rican homes compared to the US.
“Their walls don’t connect to the roofs so they have more ventilation because they don’t have air conditioning. So, in my room I could hear everyone talking throughout the house when I tried to sleep,” Kloos said.
As well as the houses, Schober also noticed that Costa Ricans have a different way of looking at life than most Americans.
“The biggest difference from Costa Rica to here I think is the appreciation that people have for their lives. Someone said it on the last day, but even the flag of San José compared to ours shows this value. Our flag has fifty stars on it, representing our land and how our country has grown throughout the years. Their flag represents more of their country, the perseverance and determination of their people, and the peacefulness of the land,” Schober said.
