La Carpio

5/23/14

On Thursday 5/22.14, we visited La Carpio.  La Carpio is a rundown area full of poverty and struggle.  The majority of people living in La Carpio are from Nicaragua.  We visited a preschool in La Carpio that is free to the children living there.  Those children were very smart and were learning English.  The day we were there, they were counting to 13 in English, and this is at ages 4 and 5.  Although the families have little money, and little resources, each child was clean, and in a clean school uniform, ready for learning.

In the middle of La Carpio is 125 stairs that over 400 families live around.  This was the subject of our service project.  Some of us painted a railing that was placed on the stairs and some of us (including me) carried buckets of concrete mix up and down the stairs, over and over again.  They will be making a wall so that when people walk on the stairs they will not fall off the side. 

Seeing La Carpio, definitely made me feel very thankful for what I have, and the overabundance of what I have been blessed with.  People are here, some living in houses made of tine and cardboard, to make a better life for themselves.  They have emigrated here from Nicaragua for a better life, and to them this is better.

The children here, barely have their basic needs met.  They may not be getting fed at home, and the only meals they receive are at school.  They may not have a proper bed to sleep in, our very many clothes to wear.  We learn in all of our education classes, that if a child’s basic need are not met, then they have difficulties learning.  I have seen this first hand, but I also feel that this pre-school we visited is giving these children tools for a better life through education.  They are giving these children a fun and safe environment, where they can learn and grow, and gain the tools they need to make a better life for themselves.

This experience showed me that children who are living in poverty do not have a choice in how their family lives.  But it also showed me that parents often don’t have that choice either.  These parents are striving to give their children the best life they can, and sometimes, this is all they can achieve.  The families that have come to La Carpio, have done so, to have a better life.  It is so important for teachers to be present in every day, and make every effort to teach every child, because you never know what great things that these children might do in the future, and that is in your hands at this moment, to give them what they need, and keep them going, so that they make it to that future.

La Carpio is looked at as a bad, run down place, but for the people who live there, they are trying to make a better life for themselves and for their families, the best that they know how.  I am glad that we took the time to visit La Carpio and to see all aspects of Costa Rica and the different lives here.