No Sweat, No Gain

Raven Sams

Today was the final day that we worked in the rain forest. We did a lot of trail work for them, meaning we cleaned up a very very very long trail that looked pretty good when we finished it. It was nice to see all of our hard work in the end. I had a lot of mixed feelings when we did put down our shovels. This was our final day of work for the entire trip and I was happy that we wouldn´t have to work anymore, but I was also sad in a way because I really enjoyed working with the people that was in that community. After we finished we all went back to our rooms to change for our final swim in the waterfalls. The water there was EXTREMELY cold, and i am not a person for a cold shower. It took me almost the entire hour in a half that we were there to actually get in the water, and when we left i still wasn't in the water all the way. I did have a nice time there even though i was cold. The place was so so so beautiful, i loved it. I even saw little minnows swimming in the water, they were cute (from a distance, i didn't want them to touch me). Then we walked all the way back up to the cabins to get changed and ready for dinner. (by this time just about everyone was running E on clean cloths, because we could only fit so much in our book bags) What was special about this night was that after dinner the entire community was coming out to talk to us after dinner. I though that that was really nice of then. Jose (our very funny guide, whose favorite words seems be uh huh and one minute (you have to hear him say it)) ask a few of us to give a little speech to them that night and i decided to do it with Makay, Callan, and Faith, the trick was that we had to say it in spanish. I was nervous initially, but a few lines into my little speech i was ok (i just hope that they didn't know that i skipped an entire line when i was saying it since i was reading it right off my notebook :-]). After they thanked us for all the hard work and we gave our little speeches and a donation to them, then the games began. It did start off slow with us learning to move a stick in our hands and tying a string so that when you pull it, it doesn't make a knot. The two best game that we played had to have been the one where we passed two lemons in opposite directions and your people had to get it around the circle as soon as possible and then Gatto (it means cat). That was indeed the best game that night because the person who was the cat had to go around and see if they can make someone laugh and when they did that person was the cat. I couldn't stop laughing and crying at the same time, those Ticos and some really fun people. Before the night was over our group and the community really bonded in a way. Not just because we played a few games with them, but because each of us (City High people) had different expectations of what it would be like in the rain forest and now that we are finished, us and the Ticos each gained something. We gained the experience that many of us will never experience again, while they were able to complete a task that might have taken them weeks. We each were equally grateful for each other and through that night we were able to understand just how much that they appreciated it.