Day 2

HI ALL

Jean here. I have to echo Adam's comments-- what a packed 2 days so far,  this morning we said good-bye to our B&B family that fed us so well for 24 hours and made us feel welcome in their home.  Yes, there were heavy gates and razor wire everywhere we looked but the family made us feel safe while we were in the burbs of San Jose.

We spent today visiting the Foundation Omar Dengo (FOD) the National Program of Educational Informatics a non-profit that has been going strong for 22 years. They have partnered with Costa Rica's Ministry of Public Education for education, technology and development. We had an interesting presentation but then was able to see first hand how this program worked-- first at Omar Dengo where we visited 3 classes-- 4th & 5th graders learning robotics, a special needs group expanding their world with technology and also a senior citizens group who want to understand how to access the internet so they can converse with their grandchildren.  We then left the city to visit a rural school to see how this program was adapted in that type of community. The community was responsible to provide a secure, air conditioned environment while the foundation provides the equipment and teacher.

The children were very excited to show us their projects and also to laugh with those of us who killed the spanish language as we tried to communicate. 

This picture is just an example of the housing we passed on the way to the rural school.


After another wonderful "simple" Costa Rican lunch prepared by the local mothers of this rural community we were back on the bus to head to our next destination-- EARTH university. More about that later.

Our group finished up the evening with reviewing some of our goals we had set for ourselves and our schools and turned them into a working first draft of a mission statement for our group with full acknowledgement that this statement is organic and will continue to evolve as we progress further into this trip.

Mission statement: draft 1
Self: To allow ourselves to grow and learn with in discomfort and challenge, so that we can build deep and empathetic connections.

School: To bring this experience back to our school communities in compelling and practical ways, which will allow us to shift school culture and globalize current curriculum with the support of our colleagues.