Viva la Vida

The schedule just said Team Building. We were given no other clues as to what was going on. Were we going to do trust falls? Do a human knot? We had no idea what to expect, but what we definitely didn't expect were Costa Rican men with sticks that have feathers and attached to either end.

On Tuesday we all gathered together at the university to become more “united.” As we walked onto a sports field which included a worn down basketball court, we were told to throw our backpacks against a tree and then come to be divided into teams. We were divided by which program we were with: Summer 2 (green team, my team), Global Impact, and two week.

Our first activity involved us holding hands in various confusing ways and passing a hula hoop over the whole group without letting go. I was put at the front of the line, and when the whistle blew to begin I climbed through the hula-hoop, and though I planned to let go, my mind never really connected with my hand, and I continued to hold the hula-hoop, which pretty quickly developed into a winning strategy. I would move with the line holding the hula hoop up for my teammates to make it easier for them to pass through. The people behind me were kind of forced to be pulled along with me as I did this. In the first round, we finished before any of the teams had gotten even halfway, and in the second round all the teams tried to mimic our strategy. We still were faster and more efficient, having gotten practice in the first round. Lots of high-fives were passed around for our accomplishment.

Our next challenge was to flip a member of our team over in various ways while she was holding water and to have the water not spill, followed by a challenge to stand up and sit down while all of us were hanging onto a rope that was tied in a circle. There was also a contest to see who could build a sort of bridge over an imaginary river with blocks faster and another to carry a tennis ball using strings from point A to point B. The ultimate test we did was we were given a man made spider web and through each hole we could have only one person pass. There were just enough holes for all of us. Being one of the lighter ones, I got to be hoisted in the air for one of the holes that was higher up and essentially got to experience a little bit of crowd surfing – though that life goal still doesn't count as accomplished.

This morning, we had to be at our activity for the day a little later than usual, at 10:00am in the morning. So my friends and I took advantage of this spare time to wake up early and walk around Heredia for a while. We took a similar route to the one we took during our tour, and just spent some extra time enjoying ourselves and taking in our surroundings. We ended at the market with the intent to buy something, but we ran out of time.

We returned to the university to have an art class, where we were given three dimensional wall hangings of a typical Puerto Rican house to paint, with assistance and help on how to do it well. In the end, all of ours turned out better than originally expected, which was a welcome surprise, and we were allowed to add a pre-made figurine to it, which ranged from a small dog to a woman carrying a pot.

Over the past few days, we've been battling with the people at the mall who sell cell phones. Every day we came back looking for a phone line or a cell phone, the process seemed to become more difficult. Finally, today it worked out. I received a local service plan for extremely cheap which is activated by a new SIM card I had to put in my phone. This will allow me to more easily and cheaply contact my friends in Costa Rica, taxis, or directors in case I need them. My other friends got cell phones, so now we can all communicate more efficiently.

And random fact of the day: For the past couple days I have been furiously scrubbing at my feet. Its extremely muddy here because of all the rain, and my feet have been dirty wherever my sandals weren't. Today, looking down, I realized it wasn't dirt/mud. It's a tan. For the last two or three days, I've been trying to scrub my tan away.